The whole "mobile" thing is going to blow up in 2006: "The whole 'mobile' thing is going to blow up in 2006. Some might think I just feel this because of my new phone and you would be partially correct. My recent access to EV-DO (i.e. a much faster data connection) is what I am basing this opinion on.

I first used the mobile web on my phone in 2000. I had a sweet little phone that had web access. I used the web for a few days to look up things but quickly tired of it. It took too long and there was not any decent content. Now, I have a phone with a full-color screen, access to more and more services every day, and speeds that are bearable. There is also a GPS unit in my phone. More and more services are going to start popping up that take advantage of the GPS to provide services based on my location. Sprint has already provided some of the obvious ones like movie listings and restaurant reviews (though there is room for others to do it better), but it will be so much more than that.

We are starting to see the emergence of social networking services (like Friendster or LinkedIn) that provide networking capabilities based on your location (if you allow your phone to do such things). Some people will find this incredibly intrusive; many of these same people found pagers and cell phones incredibly intrusive before). Others will start really taking advantage of mobile location-based services very soon. I think there are already applications for young singles to meet other young singles. Those will probably be the early adopters.

I am looking forward to using more and more mobile services. I am already using some (like text messaging google for the weather and such). Using mobile services is not what I am most excited about though. As a software developer I am realizing that soon I will be developing apps for mobile users. Just as AJAX really caught on in the second half of 2005, I think that mobile services will really catch on in the second half of 2006.
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