The many faces of mobile

No matter who you ask, a common theme is how hot the mobile space has gotten over the last few years. Mobile has impacted desktop sales and even laptop sales, even though the latter are part of the mobile space. The march of mobile will not slow down this year, and it will wear many faces.

The smartphone will be front and center in the mobile space, as it is becoming as ubiquitous as belly buttons. Those clinging to their old feature phones will be hard-pressed to pass on upgrading to the powerful smartphone. Carriers will offer good smartphones at cheap prices (or free), and hold-outs will trade in the old flip phone for some Android phone or another. Smartphone adoption will continue to ramp up, and the personal grid will take hold.

See: Introducing the Personal Grid: All your gear working together

The personal grid is my take on how mobile devices will interact with each other, with us, and even our homes. We are on the verge of seeing all of our information, entertainment, and communication become integrated with all of our mobile gear and with our homes. Soon it won't matter if you pick up your phone, tablet, laptop, or just sit in front of your TV, you will be able to do everything you normally do with any of these devices without missing a beat.

Innovative home technology like the Nest programmable thermostat is not something you may think of when you think mobile tech, but I believe you should. This is the perfect type of technology to form the basis of a personal grid, with access to the web and thus bringing your home controls to wherever you may be. You can already interact with your home system from any mobile device. Imagine if such technology were combined with a set-top box to also handle all of your home entertainment?

A fair portion of our home entertainment is now web-based, so this type of evolution is logical. If something like a Nest system also handled your entertainment, the personal grid would not only cover your whole house (think wireless TVs) but also be accessible through your smartphone, tablet, or laptop from anywhere. Mobile tech will reach into your life in ways never anticipated, and with relative ease.

This year will see mobile branch out into multiple areas of our lives, and in our homes more than anywhere. It will become a big part in our communication, interaction with others, entertainment, and lifestyle. Even when we are sitting in front of the couch at home.