Earlier this week I began sharing with you the inventions I’ve been hinting at the past couple of weeks. Earlier this week we’ve covered the Printing Press, the Steam Engine, the Telegraph, the Microprocessor, and the Internet. Today we reach the final one – the Mobile Phone.
Quotes from the forthcoming book The Power of Mobility. Due out this September.
“The first wireless phones in no way resembled the convenient, attractive devices we carry today. At first, wireless phones were almost universally installed in cars. Later came bag phones which could be carried about, but certainly couldn’t fit in a purse or pocket. But that didn’t stop folks from falling in love with mobility. By the end of 1985, there were 340,000 customers in eighty-five markets. Within two years, that number had more than tripled and the industry had generated more than a billion dollars in revenue. By the end of the decade, 5.3 million cell phones had been sold and annual revenues were at $3 billion. AT&T’s study had missed the mark. Badly.”
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“One thing is clear – mobility has been a huge hit. According to the CTIA, in mid-2006 there were 219.4 million U.S. wireless subscribers, spending more than $10 billion per month for mobility. And these customers have clearly begun to integrate their mobile devices into how they live, work and play.”
“The global impact is even more dramatic. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), it took 21 years for mobile technology to reach the first billion users worldwide. In comparison, it took 125 years for wireline telecom to reach that same billion. The second billion mobile users signed up in just three years. Wireline has yet to reach its second billion. Philip Redman of research firm Gartner, Inc. estimates that nearly half of the world’s population will be mobile users by 2010. Considering that up until now, less than 10% of the world’s population has ever made a telephone call, the impact of mobility on how the world lives and communicates is huge.”
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“Why has mobility so rapidly been adopted and begun to impact the world? In the fall of 2005, I made an observation as simple and intuitive as Moore’s Law or Metcalfe’s Law. Simply stated, the Law of Mobility observes that the value of any product or service increases with its mobility.”
“As the cost of adding mobility (availability and context) into products continues to fall dramatically, the Law of Mobility would suggest the value of products and services would increase if mobility were built in. This potential transformation of the previously-ordinary to the mobility-blessed will likely reshape our lives dramatically.”
“Those companies that figure out how to lead by building mobility into their products and services will redefine the rules of competition in their industries increasing the odds they can win.”