Wednesday, October 15, 2008

"Hyperconnection" Driving Wireless Broadband?

Some 16 percent of Internet users live a “hyperconnected” life, meaning they regularly use more than seven devices and more than nine applications, says Scott Wickware, Nortel general manager.

Some 36 percent are “increasingly connected,” meaning they use four devices and nine applications, he adds. About 20 percent are passive online users and 28 percent are "not very connected," he says.

So although about half of Internet users might not agree they are living in "a hyperconnected world” that requires or benefits from mobile broadband access, Wickware suggests 52 percent are candidates for mobile broadband.

The logic is simple enough: as users got comfortable with email and then wanted to have email available in their pockets and purses, so they increasingly will want access to their social networks, video and audio entertainment in the same way.

As voice once was a service delivered to "places" and now is delivered to "people," so email used to be delivered to "PCs" and now is delivered to mobiles. Roughly the same process will unfold with broadband as well, most argue. Where broadband used to be delivered to a place, it increasingly will be delivered to people; where applications are used on PCs, they in the future will be used by people on a number of mobile devices in their purses and pockets.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great article. I would suggest to you that what you are calling hyperconnected needs refinement or definition.
From my perspective a hyper connected couple are connected to each other using the tools you talk about. Your article seems to say hyperconnected is the use of the tools themselves. Maybe we need a better definition for hyperconnection? Just a consideration.
Ken and I consider ourselves to be hyperconnected, but it's quite a different type of hyperconnection. It's connected via our daily tools, such as gtalk, blackberry's, n800's, skype etc., yes, but we simply refuse to leave the ability to talk, or touch base behind as we head out our door to do other things.
Something to ponder, hyper connection sort of implies a connection TO someone not some thing.

Gary Kim said...

Good point, Sheryl. For the most part, communications by whatever means are about people connecting to other people.

T4 Show said...

Is there a term for someone that's more than hyperconnected? Should that person seek help?

Consumer Feedback on Smartphone AI Isn't That Helpful

It is a truism that consumers cannot envision what they never have seen, so perhaps it is not too surprising that artificial intelligence sm...