The mobile revolution is upon us. All day and each and every day we carry around with us powerful mobile computers that have more processing power than a desktop PC had only a few short years ago. Technology waits for no one and we have only skimmed the surface of the possibilities of this revolution as consumers rely on these increasingly powerful and ever-present devices. Today's smartphone is not primarily a phone and with its range of communication features has reduced the time we spend making actual calls. Tomorrow's smartphone will be like a third brain, with superior data-driven intelligence and more personalized and real-time information than we once thought imaginable.

Imagine yourself ten years ago with the mobile phone you owned at the time. You could talk, text and perhaps had the addictive Snake game on your Nokia. The more advanced may have owned a cameraphone producing low-quality pixelated images that seemed almost impossible to download.

Then again, in 2003 you may not have owned a mobile phone, as only 64% of the UK adult population did.¹⁰⁷ It's taken for granted now but at the time the mobile internet was unknown to most people and used only by those who could afford the high browsing fees. Even the once iconic Blackberry was still in its infancy and only used by a select group of people, mainly those of the suit-wearing corporate variety.

Fast forward ten years. Blackberry came and almost went; mobile internet data costs have decreased tenfold; the introduction of the iPhone, iPad and subsequent launch of Google Android have revolutionized the ways in which we communicate and consume on the move; there are more mobile phones in the UK than there are people, and the new 4G network is providing, by today's standards, super-fast mobile internet.

This is just the beginning. On the horizon is a slew of technological and cultural advancements that will shape people's lives and how organizations interact with them.

The supercomputer in a smartphone

The growth in mobile technology is increasing at an exponential rate. The computing power of today's smartphone once had to be housed in a large room full of coolers to prevent it from over-heating. In the future the same processing power will be small enough to fit into a red blood cell. Future gazers predict that computing power will surpass human brain power by 2023 in what has been named Technological Singularity – the theoretical emergence of greater-than-human super-intelligence through technological means.

Think that this is merely speculation by over-enthusiastic Star Wars fans and you may think again. Technology and consulting company, IBM, built a supercomputer that can not only understand questions posed in natural language but can answer them using its databank of information with a superior degree of accuracy. When the supercomputer, Watson (named after IBM's first president), answers a question incorrectly it learns from its mistake, ensuring that if the same question is asked again it answers it correctly.

To prove its superior intelligence, and as a test of its abilities, Watson competed on the US TV quiz show Jeopardy! in 2011 against the show's two most successful players. The biggest all-time money winner and the record holder for the most consecutive games won both unsuccessfully competed against Watson in the special one-off show, vindicating the academic field of artificial intelligence and perhaps opening up the minds of the general public to such technological capabilities.

Finding additional uses for Watson is part of IBM's plan and mobility is being touted as a future feature. An article in US publication, Businessweek, titled, “IBM wants to put a Watson in your pocket”¹⁰⁸ outlined the company's plans to take Watson's technology and condense it to smartphone size, and caused excitement among the great and the good in mobile circles.

Whether it is IBM or another company that fits greater-than-human super-intelligence technology into a device the size of a smartphone remains to be seen. Though thanks to technology's exponential curve one thing seems certain and that is that a smartphone with Watson-like features will be available for consumer use in the near future.

Curated, personalized and highly mobile news

According to Ofcom the UK is the global leader in the mobile market, with Brits consuming more data on their mobile phones than any other country on a per head basis.¹⁰⁹ With one of the highest penetrations of smartphone and tablet ownership in the world, the social networking obsessive, high definition content consuming and information junkie Brit just can't get enough.

This trend is beginning to change how people find and consume news and is impacting on news organizations. The Guardian's website is in the midst of change in terms of how people access it. In 2010 just 10% of visitors accessed it from a mobile device but by 2012 this had increased to 35%. The Financial Times has reported similar numbers, with 30% of online traffic coming from a mobile device. This growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

These aren't isolated examples but an illustration of how news organizations around the world are experiencing a similar trend. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with their large communities and content-sharing features are playing a part in this shift but they themselves are facing similar challenges as their users increasingly use their mobiles to communicate and share with their friends.

Facebook in particular has seen a dramatic change in how people access the site, with over half of its one billion users coming via a mobile device. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg anticipates the rate of growth in mobile usage will “exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the foreseeable future”.¹¹⁰ A comScore research paper found that around 13% of all visits to UK national newspaper websites come from Facebook.¹¹¹

After the introduction of its news app The Guardian saw a dramatic increase in referrals as 30% of all traffic to its news site came from Facebook. Changes to the Facebook platform have since seen the demise of the news app but nevertheless show the influence Facebook has over news publishers around the world.

While social sites make a big impact they are not the only mobile disrupter. News curation and social network aggregation apps pull in content from multiple sources to a single location to help the user consolidate multiple news sources and social networking profiles. They are changing the way in which consumers discover news. An example of this is Flipboard, a beautifully designed application for iPhone, iPad and Android which curates content from numerous social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram. It allows users to see, in a magazine-like format, what news stories and blog posts their friends, colleagues and influencers are linking to. Taking it one step further, Flipboard can create a magazine from Twitter searches (a specific hashtag keyword for example).

This kind of news consumption essentially takes the peer-to-peer recommendation model to another level. Whilst Flipboard isn't the only app that does this, it is certainly one of the most pioneering and forward thinking. It introduced a partner programme where publishers including big name ones such as The Telegraph, New York Times, Esquire and Vanity Fair and brands including Red Bull and Oprah allow Flipboard to aggregate their content and feed users advertisements along with it.

This type of news consumption is only the beginning, as users increasingly want to manage personalized news content on their terms. News consumption will be tailored in ways that previously seemed impossible. Personalized news and information will be delivered to the user based on real-time factors including mood, location and current interests and will rely on intelligent separate devices that communicate and share data with one another.

The data-driven society with mobile at its core

The mobile device of the future will be a powerful device pulling in news, content and information; answering any question we may have in a matter of milliseconds and helping us make personal decisions based on its own logic, learning and, ultimately, inference. This efficient tool will become a dependable friend we can't live without.

It won't be the only device we carry around with us however, but will act as the central hub of an ecosystem of devices, clothing, jewellery, watches and loyalty cards all equipped with sensor technology to connect with, use and exchange information with one another.

This interoperability of technology is closely linked to the rise of both the Quantified Self movement and the Internet of Things and mobile will play a fundamental role in bridging the two. These sensors will create data that can be utilized by business.

Consider the following scenario.

It's 7.13am and Jon is woken by his mobile phone's alarm. The alarm will wake him anywhere between 6.45am and 7.15am depending on when he is in the lightest part of the sleep cycle. The phone is able to do this as Jon wears a sleep mask with sensors which track the three phases of sleep, REM, deep and light sleep so he can be woken at the appropriate time.

The mask sends sleep data to the phone and over time understands how much sleep Jon needs per night to feel fully awake during the day. On mornings when he hasn't had adequate sleep he will be served news articles on how to improve sleep and steps to take to feel fresh during the day after a bad night's sleep.

Jon's watch is not really a watch. Of course it tells the time but it is primarily used as a precise monitoring tool that analyzes his skin for his heart rate, heart rate variability, stress levels, blood pressure, blood glucose and fatigue. The watch is connected to his phone which collects the data and paints a picture of Jon's long-term health.

Any increase and ongoing fluctuation in the data and the phone makes an appointment with his doctor and shares the data with the doctor beforehand. On a day-by-day basis the health data is mapped to the calendar on Jon's phone, which allows him to pinpoint which parts of his day are causing his stress levels to increase. By addressing any issues Jon's health insurance premiums go down as a result because his health insurance company can see he is implementing positive changes to his lifestyle.

Part of these lifestyle changes may be in the foods Jon eats and he may move to purchasing a more healthy range. This kind of change will not go unnoticed at Jon's local supermarket, and by using his phone along with the store's loyalty app to pay for his weekly shopping he is a treasure trove of insight. His purchase of healthier food will prompt his phone to serve him health-related articles and features. When Jon suddenly starts buying only half of his usual weekly grocery shopping the supermarket may assume that he has split up with his partner and begin sending him discounts to dating sites. When months later his grocery shopping doubles it will be assumed that he has found and moved in with a new partner (or made up with the old one) and the phone will begin to serve him information on holidays for two.

This data of course is very personal and gaining access to it would require consent from Jon and people like him. There will be incentives for those who do so, however, and those that opt in to this data sharing will benefit from rewards, premium subscriptions, discounts and promotions.

The smartphone to multicorder

The “phone” in smartphone is an archaic reference to a bygone era of voice call only devices. Tomorrow's smartphone will be so far removed that a more relevant name for this device will be ushered in to aptly describe its functionality. The long-running sci-fi entertainment franchise, Star Trek, may have the answer with the Tricorder, a tri-functional handheld device used by the crew of the Starship Enterprise for scanning, data analysis and recording data.

The future smartphone could be called a tricorder, or perhaps, because of its multifunctional data analyzing, personal recommending, information consumption, self-learning and super-intelligence, the term “multicorder” may be a more appropriate name.

Regardless of the name, these devices will continue to alter our lives and our habits in new and powerful ways. Organizations of all kinds will need to embrace this change by creating freely available, up-to-date and relevant content; by creating partnerships with sensor technology companies and curation platforms; by understanding that decisions will increasingly be made on superior analysis rather than general instinct and by knowing that individuality has never been more important in this new and exciting age. Welcome to the next ten years of mobile.

Biography

Stephen Davies (@stedavies) is a digital communications consultant. He has worked in digital and social media since 2005 and has devised and implemented national and international digital strategies for a range of organizations in health, pharma, technology, consumer, media, government, not-for-profit and B2B. Stephen speaks on digital communications in the UK, Europe, Russia and the Gulf. His blog – since 2005 – has been recognized by industry professionals globally. He's been in PR Week Power Book twice, which claims to include the top 1% most “powerful and inspirational” UK PR people. He is a committee member of Forum Davos, an annual international conference held in Davos, Switzerland.