mikevu.com

I was at Sweet Tomatoes a few months ago and was on my iPhone trying to make a last minute fantasy football move while getting my food in line. When it was time to pay, the lady asked me if I had a coupon. I told her I didn’t have time to print one out and then she asked me if I had an iPhone. I showed her my phone and said yes. She asked me in a “wtf are you doing” type of voice “then why don’t you just show me on your phone??” I finished my fantasy football move, jumped to google search in Safari and searched for “sweet tomatoes coupon.” Bam, first result, tap, then coupon is on the screen.

That was the first time that I’ve been asked by a business/store for a mobile coupon. After I paid and sat down, it hit me at that moment. This world is changing so quickly….

Fast forward to today. You can smell it in the air. Change is all around. Big changes are all around. Weather patterns shifting, Verizon iPhone finally hitting, iPad 2 lurking, SXSW excitement building, Packers Superbowl a reality, The Year of the Rabbit officially in session, and 2011 is now about 8% done with. Changes are happening so quickly and we are more equipped than ever to keep up with it all.

Google, Twitter, Facebook, and RSS (no, it’s not dead!) make it easier than ever to stay in the loop. And of course iPhones, iPads, Androids, Blackberries, Macs, PCs, netbooks, other tablets, etc. make it easy to access that loop.

With 4G just around the corner for mainstream consumers, the mobile web is about to “hit its stride” and we will be in for a ride. In terms of impact, I think that the transition from 3G mobile to 4G mobile in the US will be a lot like the shift from modems to broadband (the early days of DSL/Cable). The impact is not so much about the actual speed, but more about what the speed will open up.

1. Real-time search was all the rage not too long ago. What gets more real-time than high quality live streaming video? Not much. That’s as real-time as real-time is every going to get, besides being there yourself. We’ve seen this already somewhat through Facetime and Skype, but the quality can surely be improved for non wifi connections (3G). A key shift will also be in how many people can be involved with the live video stream. I’m sure there will be many other use cases for live video as well. Real-time live video search anybody?

2. The early days of augmented reality (AR) have been pretty weak. With the exception of a few apps such as World Lens, AR just hasn’t really done anything that is completely useful. With 4G, I think the time for AR will finally be here. I’m not a bandwidth expert, but from what I assume and have experienced through testing out a few apps, good AR takes a lot of bandwidth and a lot of power. Most of the apps so far are a bit clunky and slow. The concept of AR is really intriguing and may be one of the gateways to true virtual worlds. A close eye must be kept on AR. It’s not just about gaming or map overlays.

3. When 4G comes, 3G becomes even cheaper and will become more ubiquitous. There is still a huge population of people out there with mobile devices that don’t have data plans. For some it’s something that just doesn’t make it into the budget. In order for services like Foursquare and Instagram to flourish to the likes of Twitter and Facebook, it will take 3G ubiquity.

4. While the economy has been doing better, it’s still no where near the “dot-com” days. It may never reach that level again, but I think 4G may provide an economic boost for the US. The mobile advertising industry is relatively still young and has not even come close to hitting it’s big boom yet. Mobile browsers are also only getting better which means nothing but good news for ads and commerce on the mobile device.