3)3G and Mobile Advertising

3G technology will enable advertisers to send more sophisticated and customized permission-based advertisements to their target audience?s mobile devices. This will be an improvement from the current SMS. There will be a convergence between the internet and wireless technology as the target audience can request that more product information be sent as email. It is unlikely that these services will provide a sustainable advantage over the long run but they will shape the brand perception of an operator at the initial stage of the introduction of wireless Internet services.

However, with the rise of m-commerce, ?business-webs ?will become even more powerful as every customer will become linked into the web. According to Keith Shank of Ericsson, wireline operators will have to find a way to integrate with wireless by providing a package of combined service capabilities and transparent coverage. Demanding consumers will want convergence of wireline, wireless and data services.

4)From E-Learning to M-Learning

The future holds a lot of promise for the E-Learning Industry. Martyn Sloman, author of The e-learning revolution has been quoted as saying "The pace of change in the global economy and advances in communications technology means that there is no debate about whether e-learning is the future or not. It clearly is. Latest assessments indicate that competitive organisations will soon be delivering up to a fifth of their training through the Internet, intranets or the web."

With the greater acceptance of e-learning, mobile learning (m-learning) will be thrive. An example of how 3G can power m-learning is when a student who may be late for a lecture can view the entire proceedings through the screen of a mobile device. It is also not far-fetched idea that the same student can even sit for a test by entering a password through the mobile device.

Challenges Ahead

Privacy is a huge question as in the case of m-commerce, each of us will leave a trail of ?digital crumbs?. With the increasing likelihood of a convergence between the net and wireless technology in many facets of social and business interactions, each of us will leave a mirror image of ourselves as we travel around.

Another problem that is highlighted by Eric Schonfeld of eCompany is getting developers interested in creating the applications that 3G phones can run. Currently developers tend to ignore markets with fewer than 1 million customers and concurrently, demanding customers insist that 3G phones should have lots of new applications to hold their attention.

Lastly, as sourced from the University of California?s Berkeley School of Information Management and System (SIMS) report ?How Much Information?? Professors Hal Varian and Peter Lyman analysed industry and governmental reports for production of information in terms of paper, film, optical and magnetic data. Among some of their findings:

?The direct accessible ?surface? Web consists of about 2.5bn documents and is growing at a rate of 7.3m pages per day.

?Counting the ?surface? Web with the ?deep? Web of connected databases, intranet sites and dynamic pages, there are about 550bn documents, and 95% is publicly accessible.

These findings show that we are already taking in a lot of information even before the introduction of wireless communication through 3G. Will there be further information overload or will mobile devices help us manage our daily affairs better?

The concluding 2 sections will provide some pointers:

1)Towards An Information Society

In the Foresight Project, an initiative led by New Zealand?s Ministry of Research, Science and Technology has stated that in an information society, individuals who are well-educated, self-motivated, and linked into information networks, are the most likely to live prosperous and fulfilling lives. Enterprises that are attuned to their customers? requirements, employ educated workers, encourage innovation through their workplace organization and, and know more and learn faster than their competitors, are the most likely to succeed and grow.

Reinforcing this point, according to Peter Drucker, there is the discipline of innovation. This is translated into having a clear mission and defining the measurement of results. In the event that there are no results, the organization should abandon the idea and then continue to seek for new and unique opportunities.

2)Future Challenges of a Knowledge-Economy

According to Dr Johari Mat, Secretary General Ministry of Education (Malaysia) at the First SEAMEO Education Congress, a Knowledge Economy Index developed using selected key elements required to drive a K-economy such as computer infrastructure, infrastructure, education and training, research and development and technology shows that most countries in this region lag behind developed and newly industrialized countries in terms of readiness to become a K-economy. For instance, the Knowledge Economy Index is 3877 for Singapore, 2460 for Malaysia, 1705 for Indonesia, and 1648 for Thailand while the Index is 6650 for USA, 5908 for Japan, 4901 for Australia, 4686 for UK, and 3912 for Korea, thus, to make a transition to the K-economy, countries in this region face the daunting task of putting in place and strengthening the core elements required to support the K-economy. Efforts need to be accelerated in the priority areas of human resource development, science and technology, research and development (R&D), ICT, and lifelong learning.

To conclude, 3G is definitely here to stay despite the early glitches.
The opportunity of being truly wireless and mobile is just too enticing.

Colin Ong TS is the Managing Director of MR=MC Consulting Pte
Ltd (www.mrmc.com.sg). He is a prolific writer on HR , Corporate
Learning and New Technology issues. His writings have appeared
in a number of global portals
(http://www.mrmc.com.sg/research.html) He has recently launched
a free learning portal at http://courses.yahoo.com/course/mrmc
which was featured in the recent Singapore Learning Festival.
For free articles and advice, please email colin@mrmc.com.sg