A smarter Internet and a host of cheap, Web-enabled mobile devices will allow users to access a whole range of services on the move, research group Gartner Dataquest said on Sunday, ahead of its ITXpo symposium. At the annual gathering in Cannes, France next week, Gartner analyst Alexander Linden will identify several of the long-term technology trends and innovations whose seeds were sown in the days of the tech bubble.
A smarter Internet will allow consumers to collaborate to pay for services costing just a few cents, making a whole range of new offerings viable. "We can start selling products we could not sell before. iTunes (Apple's online music store where songs cost $0.99 apiece) is just the start," Linden said.
Navigation systems which now offer only a rudimentary selection of road services such as fuel stations and tourist sights are just a beginning.
Mobile users will one day be shown the way to the nearest doctor on weekend duty. Parents will be able to contact the nearest child minder to take over at a moment's notice.
Consumers will be able to select and rate a wide range of services such as restaurants or shops.
"It will influence competition. Companies will have to compete more on quality and location than brand," Linden said.
Some Web sites already offer a glimpse of the future by having customers describe and rate restaurants they visit, in a real life version of what Google and Amazon.com do by tracking clicks and customer purchases.
Consumers and businesses should expect this kind of Internet intelligence to come to the real world.
There is also a new opportunity for investors. On the new Internet, they will not need expensive investment software to find and compare data from company financial reports.
The building blocks for a more intelligent Internet are standardised data from a plethora of sources which can be recognised and connected.
For now, we are in a technology cycle in which all kinds of information network are built and tied together for ubiquitous access to the Internet, Gartner says.
It expects the distinction between fixed and mobile Internet to slowly disappear.
The first signs of this can be seen in some Web sites which recognise how a consumer accesses a site, either by PC or cellphone. They adjust the size and content of the page accordingly and automatically.
The next cycle of connectivity, where all systems understand each other, has barely started, while the following cycle - in which this intelligence is embedded in every device - is still a dream.
"We always say we live in the information age. But in fact we live in an information wanna-be situation," Linden said. "It will take a century or more to get to ubiquitous intelligence."