I've been noodling on the future, which I tend to do. One of the things that has fascinated me is the trend for video content to move online. I can still remember arguing with this august group about the capacity for the internet to deliver HD content. Remember all the comments like, "my internet connection is already too slow" and "there is no way my provider can deliver HD content to all my neighbors and me at the same time"? I do.
Well, here we are. Most of us are enjoying HD content online at least some of the time. With Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other new players putting the old players like Time Warner and Comcast to shame, we need to stop considering how our current situation will change and instead look to how new companies and people will give us options we never had before.
Innovation doesn't come from the old guard adding a feature or remaking themselves, instead it comes from completely new ideas which completely toss out the old models for doing business. Even Amazon looks old when compared to Hulu and Netflix.
So, what is in your future?
WWAN (wireless data service) is vastly expanding its performance and coverage area. The costs of getting 10GB of data month is constant going down at a surprising rate, and the carriers and service providers are investing heavily in being better and more advanced than their rivals. They are playing defense against you buying out of your contract and going to someone else. But they are getting ahead of that mode and are slowly moving to an offense strategy where they are adding features and capabilities which will make them a better choice. XLTE (a term which should never have been created since LTE defines what they are offering perfectly well - but they misused LTE and 4G in the first place) is finally giving us what we deserve, and most 4G devices get greater bandwidth than our home wired internet connections.
The future is one where high performance connectivity is ubiquitous. Everything you own which can be connected could be connected at speeds that we couldn't fathom 10 years ago. And content will be king.
Carriers are vastly expanding caching and transcoding services in their networks so they can reduce the burden on their backhaul networks and still deliver your movie with incredible quality - but that effort costs a fortune so they'd like to charge the content providers to take advantage of these technologies. This is why they are against net neutrality. Some of the content providers are more than willing to pay a little to get better video quality to their viewers, but others, like Netflix, are fighting it like mad because their business model assumes a virtually free network to deliver their content to viewers.
We can easily expect things to get better over the next few years without any need to move to the anticipated 5G technology currently in definition mode.
Then we have the content guys. They are finding better ways of getting us what we want when we want it without any nonsense. My wife is watching network shows on Hulu+ before I can get to them on my HTPC where they were recorded via broadcast tuners. Why do I even have an antenna anymore? ESPN, Disney, Sony Pictures, and the NFL are partnering with everyone to provide higher quality images and sound over traditional networks in an effort to ensure the best experience for users. New players like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are creating their own shows and movies for us. There is virtually an unlimited supply of diverse, unique and interesting content out there to satisfy each of our tastes.
In fact, we are growing less homogenized as a culture because I can watch stuff that all my peers don't watch and vice versa. For 40 years we all watched exactly the same shows and listened to exactly the same music and now I can watch TV for a month and be immensely entertained and never see the same shows as any of my co-workers or friends who also watch tons of shows. This is exactly what will lead to greater diversity, expand creativity, and make us less like ants focused on one goal with one mind. We need this as a society.
So... the revolution is coming true! The early days of the internet was filled with idealists claiming the world wide web would democratize information and later knowledge, and that has proven true. Now we are seeing a revolution in democratizing entertainment. The grip over the minds of the world that made us all drones in the 70s and 80s is being loosened and we can grow and learn and be entertained without having to share that experience with everyone in the world. This is an amazing time.
This is, indeed, an amazing time.
I cannot wait for tomorrow to come.
And... wait until 2020 when 5G gets here... OMG we won't know how to comprehend that either.
Well, here we are. Most of us are enjoying HD content online at least some of the time. With Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other new players putting the old players like Time Warner and Comcast to shame, we need to stop considering how our current situation will change and instead look to how new companies and people will give us options we never had before.
Innovation doesn't come from the old guard adding a feature or remaking themselves, instead it comes from completely new ideas which completely toss out the old models for doing business. Even Amazon looks old when compared to Hulu and Netflix.
So, what is in your future?
WWAN (wireless data service) is vastly expanding its performance and coverage area. The costs of getting 10GB of data month is constant going down at a surprising rate, and the carriers and service providers are investing heavily in being better and more advanced than their rivals. They are playing defense against you buying out of your contract and going to someone else. But they are getting ahead of that mode and are slowly moving to an offense strategy where they are adding features and capabilities which will make them a better choice. XLTE (a term which should never have been created since LTE defines what they are offering perfectly well - but they misused LTE and 4G in the first place) is finally giving us what we deserve, and most 4G devices get greater bandwidth than our home wired internet connections.
The future is one where high performance connectivity is ubiquitous. Everything you own which can be connected could be connected at speeds that we couldn't fathom 10 years ago. And content will be king.
Carriers are vastly expanding caching and transcoding services in their networks so they can reduce the burden on their backhaul networks and still deliver your movie with incredible quality - but that effort costs a fortune so they'd like to charge the content providers to take advantage of these technologies. This is why they are against net neutrality. Some of the content providers are more than willing to pay a little to get better video quality to their viewers, but others, like Netflix, are fighting it like mad because their business model assumes a virtually free network to deliver their content to viewers.
We can easily expect things to get better over the next few years without any need to move to the anticipated 5G technology currently in definition mode.
Then we have the content guys. They are finding better ways of getting us what we want when we want it without any nonsense. My wife is watching network shows on Hulu+ before I can get to them on my HTPC where they were recorded via broadcast tuners. Why do I even have an antenna anymore? ESPN, Disney, Sony Pictures, and the NFL are partnering with everyone to provide higher quality images and sound over traditional networks in an effort to ensure the best experience for users. New players like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are creating their own shows and movies for us. There is virtually an unlimited supply of diverse, unique and interesting content out there to satisfy each of our tastes.
In fact, we are growing less homogenized as a culture because I can watch stuff that all my peers don't watch and vice versa. For 40 years we all watched exactly the same shows and listened to exactly the same music and now I can watch TV for a month and be immensely entertained and never see the same shows as any of my co-workers or friends who also watch tons of shows. This is exactly what will lead to greater diversity, expand creativity, and make us less like ants focused on one goal with one mind. We need this as a society.
So... the revolution is coming true! The early days of the internet was filled with idealists claiming the world wide web would democratize information and later knowledge, and that has proven true. Now we are seeing a revolution in democratizing entertainment. The grip over the minds of the world that made us all drones in the 70s and 80s is being loosened and we can grow and learn and be entertained without having to share that experience with everyone in the world. This is an amazing time.
This is, indeed, an amazing time.
I cannot wait for tomorrow to come.
And... wait until 2020 when 5G gets here... OMG we won't know how to comprehend that either.
