The World is Getting Smarter – Devices into Play

Probably the world may not have considered Gordon Moore’s prediction (1965) “the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years” quite seriously until recently. Computing has changed the whole landscape of human-devices relationship. Experts says that we are presently witnessing the 3rd era of computing, the 1st era was defined by the main and mini frames (1950’s thru to the early 80’s), the 2nd era was defined by the desktop personal computers (1980’s thru to the early 20’s) and now this 3rd is being driven by smart phones and tablets.
One of the primary reasons behind is the counting desire of communicating ‘anywhere, anytime’ which surely demand a small, easy to handle device able to offer multiple communication channels. Mobility has become an essential part of us. Today, we can’t deny a strongly established interconnection among technology evolution and smart devices manufacturing. Technology arrives as a launching pad over which numerous devices encompassing unique design, style and features are staged.
Convergence of technological platforms is inviting the devices revolution enabling the world to get smarter. We are now living in a true global village, more connected than ever before. This convergence of platforms is giving rise to whole set of interactive applications and channels. According to a recent Cisco report, this exceptional technological growth will continue to be drives by smart connected devices; the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population during 2012 as there will be over 10 billion smart connected devices in 2016. According to Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, here are 3X as many smart phones being activated every minute around the world than there are babies being born. This is a sign of the times. Smart phones are being adopted at incredible rates in developed worlds and even in many developing countries as well. In fact, recent data shows that for the first time, smart phone ownership is higher than feature phone ownership in the U.S.
The increasing demand for smart devices is also lashing the development of advanced semiconductor industry. An extensive research is being carried out in the fields of surface-mounting, micro and nano-manufacturing becoming a source of key competitive advantage to manufacturers in consumer electronics, education, healthcare, automotive and others. The smart devices are playing a pivotal role for social and economic development, enabling platforms to empower communities by broadening access to healthcare, education and other social segments. The computational and data access capabilities that one can achieve today through a smart phone are much more than what we use to experience ten years ago using large size computers and sophisticated network-based software’s. Probably, ten years from now, a variety of devices will be replaced by a single small one.
While the trends towards smart devices are increasing, there do appear some rising issues and implications. Policy makers and Regulators do require a careful approach to observe the functionalities of a single device popping into multiple technology boundaries. The situation could become even more complicated in an un-converged regulatory environment. With an increase of smart devices by people, Governments have started initiating standards to promote green computing to address environmentally sustainable device usage. From the user prospective, reliability, security and privacy are among the associated issues while using smart devices.