Spent most of today on Mizzou's main campus. I've mentioned before that the place is big - I parked in the usual lot I have access to over by the hospital. Getting to the alumni center, where the seminar I was attending was being held, took a ten minute hike.
Good exercise, although I could have done without the drizzle this morning.
The event I attended was part technique presentation and part sales pitch - Adobe provided guest speakers to show off some tricks in various parts of Creative Suite 5. Along the way, they managed to talk up the just announced CS 5.5. I'm suitably impressed with some of the new stuff coming our way - particularly additions to InDesign and Flash Professional, but I am perhaps easily swayed.
One of the speakers made an interesting assertion that I'm keen to follow up on. As 4G networks roll out across the country and smartphones continue to make inroads, he's predicting that 2014 will be the year that wireless, phone based internet connectivity overtakes landline broadband - both in raw speed and in the number of users.
That will have some major implications when it comes to designing and delivering content.
It won't be universal, of course. It will take time for 4G networks to spread just as it took time for 3G tech to reach less populated areas. (Saint Robert officially became a 3G zone only last year, and really only along a narrow corridor on either side of I-44.) Broadband and dialup will continue to be the only recourse for a not insignificant portion of non-urbanized Americans.
Will this result in a urban/rural content divide? Will there really be "Two Internet Americas"? It's not impossible to picture a period where you could carve out a niche by designing "low cal" versions of 4G sites for the hinterlands.
Now is definitely a good time to start preparing for the future though. And that should include learning to develop for at least one of the mobile platforms.
Recent Comments