Internet Trends 2010 (with a little help of Morgan Stanley)

Just "few-days-new" presentation by Morgan Stanley on main trends in the digital world. Includes quite a lot of useful facts and observations about mobile revolution we are part of and about significant changes in online advertising and communication. 

What does it mean to communication and creative businesses (formerly known as advertising industry)? Few quick and a bit uncritical thoughts based the presentations and few observations on developments in mobile markets and social networks:

1. Mobile seems going to be much bigger theme than expected and it will be all around much faster. Also in communication - from any kind of commercial communication to our daily conversations. Head-to-head competition of more than few top-class-phones with no clear leader (HTC Evo, iPhone4, Nokia N3, Google Nexus) and more coming out this Summer/Autumn will only accelerate it. 
   
   
2. "Tipping-point" for smart-phones AND 3G penetration seems to be there. Both has been available for a while but it seems that there is enough critical mass in environment that will engage people in more active using and benefiting from both. Combined with (hopefully) decreasing traffic prices "this is going to change a lot". The main consequence - most of us will have access to web everywhere, increasingly more multi-tasking situations and multi-screen environments to everybody of us; even to those who are avoiding or rarely using desktop computers and notebooks. 
   
   
3. Android vs. iPhone battle. Will it be as epic as Microsoft/PC vs. Apple? With same scale drama? There are more than few similarities in the these early years to those early years. 
   
   
4. New age is requiring new skills (slide 16). We will have to relearn some quite quickly. It could create some discomfort to those who were comfortable with existing state of things. But most importantly - this time will create a lot of comfort to those who were in discomfort with mouse & keyboard & multiple windows environment. The user base of digital technologies will rapidly extend. 
   
   
5. Morgan Stanley call it "Unusually high level of innovation" all around us. I call it unusually high level of opportunities. For new and existing businesses. For designers and developers. For everybody who is curious, ready to explore and experiment. For communication agencies and any company that who is looking for how to create a value or how to deliver great content to customers. 
   
   
6. "Golden Age of Online Advertising"? Most probably it is coming. But will it be "Online Advertising"? Yes, communication, but will it be advertising at all? And can it be golden only for "Online" - what really matters is what we do in real life and how it links with real life. But one thing is clear - it will be completely different kind of "Golden Age" from one that One-Direction-Mass-Media-Age-Communication players expected. 
   
   
7. Social Networking taking over e-mails (by Morgan Stanley and also by other, earlier sources) and also seems to be taking over search (at least already in UK). Thats is natural. And it also is turning the game around. The main consequence - everybody is increasingly deciding who can reach him and when; everybody will increasingly rely on information only from sources he trust and he chooses; everybody will increasingly be involved not only in consuming content but also in creating it in one form or another. Because Social Networks very much are about what you choose (what kind of world do you build for yourself) and what you do (you can't just listen).