Preview: Towards ultimate aggregation - May 2005  

Digital solutions company Desktoplife has written a white paper that it wishes to share with S&T readers. A taster is provided below.

Executive summary

So, first things first. Why has Desktoplife has written a white paper? Well, in a fast moving world, there are, not only new technologies arriving everyday, but also new applications for these technologies, seemingly every minute of every day. We thought it was a good time to take stock and share with you, not only, our own thoughts on the market but also those of key industry participants and commentators. We have spent the last six months getting under the skin of this world. During this time, three key themes have emerged: digitisation, mobilisation and personalisation.

Digitisation

2005 is a digital world. Driven by the relentless march of broadband, with new connections running at 50,000 per week, broadband will account for over 50% of all connections by July 2005. Whether it's for personal entertainment or business use, we receive and send our information/stimuli in digital form. The music we listen to, the photos we take, the TV we watch, the way we communicate, increasingly it's on a digital platform. Just look at the growth of Skype if you don't believe us!

Mobilisation

No longer are we bound to a location by fixed wiring. Traditionally, for instance, work was done in an office and music was listened to in a lounge. These days business and play is done on the move, and, increasingly, without wires. As wireless coverage extends, we are entering the digital world when the need/desire strikes, regardless of location.

Personalisation

There has never been more choice or arguably more confusion! Media has fragmented in terms of both channel and content. The opportunity (and, of course challenge) lies in aggregation, delivering exactly what people want, at exactly the moment they want it, in exactly the right form. Just look at how RSS feeds have taken off, for example. The consumer is more demanding than ever and will become more demanding yet still. What they really want is a single solution that does all of the above. What prize for the company that develops this?

So what?

So what does this mean for our industry. What's the 'Big Thought' here? We believe we are, at last, seeing the true dawning of the 'Daily Me', first prophesised by Nicholas Negroponte, 10 years ago, in his book 'Being Digital' A world where we are presented with, and consume, content (e.g. news, video, music, events and imagery) be it in our personal or professional life, that is specifically tailored to us and us alone. Imagine a world where your daughter is backpacking around Australia, your favourite band played at Brixton Academy last night, your soccer team is playing in the European Cup semi finals next week, your favourite Cape Town hotel is running a special offer, oh, and your boss needs to see you at 7.30 tomorrow morning… Imagine a world where all of this was delivered to you in one place, a perfect blend of software and hardware.
We call this vision… ultimate aggregation.

To find out more about Desktoplife’s views on ultimate aggregation in the white paper, e-mail Rob Eberstein at rob@desktoplife.co.uk.

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