It’s 2032. You and I are walking to a restaurant together in Manhattan. Mobile Google Maps is on our eyeglasses, which means we are seeing it in the world, on the sides of buildings, on street signs, wherever is a convenient place for both of us to look.
Because we don’t need to look at our phones to see the route, we can continue focusing on our conversation with one another, without worrying that we will take a wrong turn. This is fundamentally different from the experience of mobile Google Maps today, which requires you to pay at least some attention to your phone app.
When we get to the restaurant, there is no menu or QR code, or any other artifact from the past. We both see the array of food choices laid out for us on the table. We use speech and hand gestures in natural ways to customize our choices.
By the time we order, the food we ordered is already on the table, just the way we like it. We just can’t eat it yet.
A few minutes later, our food has arrived. It looks just the same as it did before, only now we can eat it. Which is nice. 🙂
I didn’t really visit NYC until the smartphone era, and wow, what a difference the phone makes!
No need to learn the arcane details of the subway or study timetables, just tell GMaps where you’re headed and follow the directions. Hungry? Find good restaurants nearby. Need to get to Brooklyn by 2pm? Summon a Lyft to take you. Skip the line for tickets at tourist attractions or shows by buying them on your phone and flashing the bar code at the gate.
Interesting to see if your glasses make a similar change.
Good comment! Yes, I am confident that it will bring about a similarly fundamental change in the user experience.
It seems that every 15 years or so there is a major communications leap forward for consumers, which always comes after many years of hard work behind the scenes.
1993 saw the first widely used browser (Mosaic) and 2008 saw the first widely used SmartPhone (the Apple iPhone).
2032-2033 will probably be around when the capabilities that I described will be available in a widely used consumer-friendly product, because that’s around when 6G will become widely available.