What's Gone Away? What's Coming?

As we start Twenty Ten and might be feeling a little nostalgic, I thought it might be fun to look at some of the things that have became obsolete over the past decade. Things that we probably thought we couldn't live without:

Dial Up Internet

Fax Machines

Floppy Disks/CDs

Fold Up Maps

Land-line Phones

Movie Rental Stores

News Paper Classifieds

Phone Books

VCR's

Rank these things however you like (I put them in alpha order) and hold on to what works for you, but know that they are pretty much "gone".

So with that said, what else might we see leave us in the near term?

Answering machines

Cameras that use film (hasn't this happened already?)

Incandescent light bulbs

Hand written "anything" - letters, checks, etc.

Daily print newspapers.

But with the passing of the "old" comes the acceptance of the "new". Here is some insight into the future.

Acceleration of Netbook Use - These mini computers, at about 2 pounds, the size of a large book, with lots of personalization options - "skins", are the easy to carry with you tool. As someone known to pull out a full sized laptop or PDA during meetings and get weird looks, I like the fact that these are becoming mainstream. It seems Netbooks may be outselling iPhones.

Built-in Wireless Broadband - Many of us use external wireless cards that provide cell phone connectivity for mobile computing giving you access to the Internet from a train, hotel, taxi or just about anywhere which is handy when WiFi is not an option. But watch for every notebook vendor to embed broadband wireless access.

Cell Phones With Lots of Software - Instead of wireless cell phone carriers controlling the applications that reside on cell phones, Google and Apple have changed this model. The Android and iPhone software are not controlled by wireless carriers, but rather they are controlled by their respective software vendors.

Unified Communications - Large companies are investing in unified communication (UC) systems which put the power of telephony onto the computer and include an integration of telephone, CRM, chat, address book, calendar and more. Look for low cost UC platforms to emerge for small businesses. You should be able to see a client's profile on your computer screen automatically when they call in. Being able to greet the customer in a more personalized manner and even knowing about your last interaction with them will become vitally important and commonplace.

Online Data Backups - We all know that we should back up our data...but unfortunately not everyone does. So watch for completely automated backup to become the standard.

Social Media is Strategic - Social media is not new, but we are not using it strategically -YET. Watch for more businesses to use social media as a way to communicate with customers. Web sites and email newsletters will remain important and social media tools as the standard will increase.

Online Video gets Way More Use - More and more companies will produce low cost, yet good quality tools for video production and sharing of those videos (such as YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and Blip.tv) as a powerful marketing tools. Watch for videos to complement blogs and email newsletters.

Video Conference Solutions Work - Video conferencing solutions will be a lot cheaper with rich features. The majority of the solutions include software, a web camera and communicate over the Internet. The grainy images and low quality will be a thing of the past. Being able to connect with customers, prospects, vendors or employees "face to face" via video will become more common. Check out Skype and Sightspeed.

Hosted Software Applications Become the "Norm" - Hosted applications continue to be used more and more. Traditional software has to be installed on a server, rolled out to individual computers, is difficult to upgrade, can cause other applications to crash and adds more complications if remote employees must use the application. It's been ok up to now, but hosted applications, or software as a service (SaaS) removes so many complications and lowers costs of use...It's an obvious choice.

So there you have it. A look at what we have left behind, what we should have but might not want to leave behind and a look into what is on the horizon to make us forget we used/wanted the old stuff. Enjoy!