Christian Lindholm's Top Mobile Trends

Christian Lindholm is Yahoo's VP of Global Mobile Products. On his blog, he makes some forecasts for the top mobile trends for 2006. Yeah, I know, the year's nearly a third over, but he has some interesting insights, based on his observations at recent trade shows and personal experience.

The hot new mobile devices, he notes, integrate Blackberry-like e-mail, high-definition cameras and music -- so handsets such as the new Nokia 3250 might be on a lot of wish lists toward holiday time.



One technology Lindholm doesn't see as big this year, though, is mobile VOIP. It's still emerging, he believes, but when mobile VOIP hits the mainstream, the impact will be revolutionary. "What I think people miss in the VOIP discussion is: The important thing is not free calls, the important thing is the social transformation of communication moving into multi-modal communication," he writes, noting that VOIP is an ideal medium for keeping his children in touch with their grandparents on the other side of the Atlantic. "Any time there is technology which brings generations together my alarmbells go off and I see a killer app. Video+voice+text fusion is just that."

Source: Russell Beattie