The Bottom Line
The advances in mobile technology over the past five years are unlike any other advances seen before. Some technological advances open our eyes to things we never dreamed we could do, or even had the language to describe. That’s not what mobile technology is about. Instead, the statistics in this chapter underline what is truly powerful about mobile technology: It’s not about enabling things we couldn’t have imagined. Instead, today’s mobile technology enables exactly what the average consumer could have imagined, albeit in settings and situations that could not have been predicted.
Mobile technology, and mobile broadband in particular, enables us to consume media, purchase products, and, yes, settle bar bets in situations that were not possible a few years ago. In short, mobile enhances our everyday lives in ways that many of us now take for granted, which is truly remarkable for a technology that is only a few years old. We grew up watching Cliff on Cheers telling us about the Egyptians, how World War I started, or the history of capitalism. Today, in the great meritocracy of the mobile world, we all have access to that information. The bar bet is over. And the great mobile commerce revolution is just beginning.