The Ultimate Killer Device
A new dawn and an old divide…
Work After Covid-19: An Opportunity
In the light of Covid-19, many of us try to see beyond the crisis and hardship, instead focusing on possible opportunities that might arise once we have defeated the virus. Working in Venture Capital, my job is to observe technologies and make sense of how, through the force of a visionary founder and the circumstances of our time, they might turn into something outstanding in the future. While in the short term the coronavirus outbreak diverts attention from new innovative opportunities and towards an inside view of one’s organisation and vulnerabilities, I believe the coronavirus will also be a catalyst for innovation in the medium and long term. The “Who led the digital transformation of your company? — Covid-19” meme went viral, but I don’t believe for a second it’s a joke.
Surveys already show that even traditional manufacturing companies plan to invest more than half of their investments post-corona into the use of new technologies and production techniques. They particularly plan to increase their spending on cloud and AI investments — the two core drivers of a digital, connected and automated future.
Covid-19 Killed the Mobile Star?
While all this is at least some good news for innovation and growth, a new question emerges on the horizon. How, meaning through what device, will we drive this change?
Over the past decade, mobile device usage has exploded, making up 52% of global screen time (desktop: 45%, tablet: 3%). Broadly defining a device as a “means through which a user obtains information”, we have also seen the advent of other new information interfaces, such as voice and VR, though those remain minuscule compared to mobile and desktop usage, which have remained relatively stable since the beginning of 2017.
Yet, Covid-19 and the long-term ripple effects it might have on human interaction could lead to a whole new class of devices gaining the upper hand. Facebook’s portal, a video chat device for homes and offices, which for a long time seemed too dead to ever be considered worth the mention, has now sold out and is being installed across large numbers of elderly care homes in the fight against loneliness.
Moreover, software companies in the space of digital collaboration software are further blurring frontiers of offline and online human interaction, including established solutions like chat (Slack), or video (zoom). Right now, they are enjoying their moment in the limelight. Other innovative solutions consider how we can further emulate human experiences in the digital world, through tools like shared screens, including shared cursors for virtual collaboration (Demodesk, Tandem) or quickly being in the same digital workspace as your co-workers (Around).
This is great news for anyone embracing the new normal of digital-physical work from the comfort of a new MacBook or ThinkPad as these advancement question mobile’s front-runner status. Though currently more prevalent in the private, rather than the work context, mobile’s ascent in the business world might be challenged as PC devices or new advanced devices are required for a seamless interaction with information, at the same time at which they portray the real world more effectively. I never believed mobile would be the end game, but I now believe its demise might be upon us faster than we currently anticipate.
Now Go Be Productive on Mobile? Widening the Digital Divide
While a new killer device certainly still lies far ahead in the future, more importantly, the current developments shine light on the detrimental effects the digital divide can have on work and learning environments for those stuck on mobile only.
Owing to its rapid spread not only in the West, but across the globe and many developing countries, mobile has widely been heralded as a democratising force in the dissemination of information. Mobile penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa is at more than 90%, with more than half of people owning smartphones. Through its fast adoption rate, we often considered mobile to be a force for good, allowing poorer countries to “jump” over more established devices in their access to the Internet, going directly to the more superior format: mobile. However, many people are not on mobile-first by choice, but because their household income does not enable them to purchase other devices, such as PCs.
Yet, when examining more closely how businesses are run, or how students learn, one quickly understands that mobile doesn’t quite do the trick. Typing longer e-mails on mobile is still a bother to even the most advanced digital experts, and anyone able to productively edit digital documents on mobile is more or less considered a genius. Yet as the level of sophistication of digital communication increases and the nuances of what defines “good work” become finer, we must ask what devices can keep up with this new collaboration frontier. Research by Napoili & Obar (2013) investigates how mobile internet access creates lower levels of functionality and content, especially in the context of work and study. “At a time when a growing proportion of the online population is “mobile only,” these disparities have created what is termed here a mobile Internet underclass.”
We see similar patterns in the world of education. During the coronavirus outbreak, The New York Times reports that “teachers at some schools across the United States say that fewer than half of their students are regularly participating in online classes. One problem in schools around the world is some families don’t have reliable internet access or computers at home.”
At a time when work and learning require access to software of ever greater finesse, the reality is that for most of the world’s poor, access to mobile is all they’ve got.
The Ultimate Opportunity Killer Device
Much of the rapid change of our work and schooling context is here to stay. Access to interaction-rich devices and knowledge of how to navigate them might soon become a key tenet of good work culture as well as an entry ticket to the new digital labour marketplace. We must consequently ask how we can ensure that access to this new (and in many ways superior) form of productivity does not discriminate against those with lesser means, starting from the very basics of the devices we use to connect and exchange information.
Much is uncertain these days. How will we interact in the future? What devices will be the co-authors of the stories our life, private and professional? Will we be able to use technology as an inclusionary force for those less fortunate than many of us?
Let’s not forget that technology is not just blindly thrown at us — we can and shall have a say in this.
