One topic that has been discussed many times over the last few years is the death of email. While once a vital communication tool for every user of technology, email has morphed into the unwanted draconian mess that it is today. Much like the analog land-line telephone, email has a date with destiny, where it is to be relegated to the proverbial bit bucket. I can't say that I am at all sad.
Although email has proven to be a semi-reliable ubiquitous avenue of communication, ills such as spam have caused email to be regarded with ire by much of the tech community. Without pulling up exact figures, about 80% of all email that traverses the internet today is spam. My barracuda filter seems to corroborate this figure. Most people keep a semi-secret email address for personal communications with friends and family, one for work, and a public address that's used as a catch-all for possible spam sources. This makes using email that much more difficult for everyone. In a perfect world, a person would be able to have a single email address from which to communicate with everyone, without worrying about spam, security or space constraints. Good luck with that!
Instant messaging has been quiet a favorite communication platform of the ultra geeky. It has now propagated down to just about every level of technology user. Text messaging on mobile phones has also risen in popularity. With the ability to take pictures and send them to anyone you want, the mobile phone (or communication device in general) has taken over the traditional PC and email client for on the go people. Most new mobile phones have built in capabilities for instant messaging, text message, email, taking pictures, recording video, watching video, listening to music and a plethora of other things. Is it a wonder that people are leaving the PC computing platform for something so small and convenient that it can fit in their shirt pocket?
The major draw back at this point is input. Text input on phones is still kludgey at best and impossibly difficult at worst. For short bursts of text, one word responses, etc., the mobile phone cannot be beat. For a deep insightful piece of prose or long letter to a friend, a keyboard and PC cannot be beat. My prediction is that as input methods become more robust and functional, the traditional PC will drop in importance. As processing power increases and the overall size of components decrease, you will see more and more technology folded into mobile phones and other mobile devices.
It is not too far fetched to imagine a phone that can project a keyboard onto a flat surface for you to type and project and image of a screen onto a nearby wall to use as your monitor. Better yet, imaging connecting your mobile phone to your sun glasses and seeing the screen as if it were 108 inches across.
Bill Gates swears that the future of computing includes voice recognition and voice input capabilities. If this prediction comes to fruition, there is no limit to where our communication platforms can go. Either way you look at it, email seems to be dead in the minds of today's young consumers, and like it or not, they will drive the market of tomorrow.
The death of e-mail and the future of web apps
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