The web today is continuing to grow at an astonishing rate and it’s not just the humans that are becoming connected at accelerating rates but ‘things’.
This month non-human objects such as GPS devices and Broadband TV’s are coming online in greater numbers in the last 3 months with AT&T and Verizon than new human subscribers according to research analyst Chetan Sharma.
So you thought social networking was the center of the web growth universe?
That laptop that is placed conveniently at arms length from your bed is not the the only connected device that is making an impact on the way we live, interact, work, socialize and play.
Even though our web social interaction has picked up at a fierce pace with Facebook, Twitter and You Tube being our most popular social media interaction channels of choice the ‘things’ we use are having micro chips attached and are being linked and networked via the internet into the world wide webs backbone and nervous system.
So what are some of the facts and figures and predictions that will impact our social web and how we will use the Internet over the next few years and decades.
- The number of devices are that are connected to the Internet is expected to pass 5 billion later this month according to IMS research (this includes digital picture frames, cameras and ebook readers)
- Predictions are that by 2020 that the number of connected ‘things’ will surpass 22 billion
- Currently over 1 billion computers worldwide are regularly connected to the internet
- Internet connected phones have now passed 1 billion (exceeding the number of computers) and growing far more rapidly
- By 2020 there is predicted to be 6 billion cell phones with most being connected to the net
This 5 minute video from IBM will give you some perspective on this fast growing world of the Internet of things.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfEbMV295Kk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
If you want to look a little further into the future you may want to consider these predictions by Chief Futurist for Cisco Systems, Dave Evans
- By 2012, 90% of data will be video
- By 2050 a computer with the computing power of nine billion brains will be available for $1,000
- We currently only know 5% of what we will know in 50 years
So there are a couple of considerations we should not ignore in planning your corporate social media marketing strategy and that is video and mobile is definitely going to be a large part of the future.