2011: truly the year of the smartphone

Amid the array of New Year predictions, it looks like the experts will be right with their consensus view that 2011 will be the year of the smartphone.

It's not just the analysts and the industry figures pushing a barrow, but something I have seen in the stores, and from friends buying them for themselves and their kids.

They've become mainstream, the technology including mobile internet access works reliably and the devices have become affordable to own and use. The business case for them stacks up.

IDC New Zealand says it expects people to become much more mobile while online.

Analysts predict the next 12 months will see 1.6 million internet connections from mobile handsets, up 200,000 from 2010.

The number of New Zealanders accessing mobile broadband from their laptops will also grow by over 30 per cent, according to IDC.

The combined increase will bring spending on mobile internet and broadband up by 28 per cent to over $300 million.

The growth of mobile internet also means nearly 40 per cent of all mobile connections in 2011 will be for internet data, IDC said.

The impacts on our lives, including our working lives, will be significant.

I had to smile this week when I read about a veteran reporter who covered the Royal Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson some 25 years ago.

After interviewing people on a train to London, he then had to find a phone booth and file his story to the copytaker. Phone booth? Copytaker?

And in that internet-free era, we wouldn't see the story until the paper was printed.

Nowadays, the reporter would have a mobile phone and a laptop.

If the train did not offer free wireless to passengers, the reporter would use their own mobile stick.

And whether or not it was filtered through a news desk or sub-editors, the story would quickly appear on a website, probably well before the print edition!

This is how I've worked myself.

No doubt, when Prince William and Kate Middleton walk down the aisle in a few months, the smartphones will be the workhorses bringing you the story.