The mobile wave : how mobile intelligence will change everything

305 Pages·2012·1.87 MB·English

by  Michael Saylor

In the tradition of international bestsellers Future Shock and Megatrends, T How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything $25.99 U.S.
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, brings The Mobile Wave, a groundbreaking $29.00 CAN
h
analysis of the impact of mobile intelligence—the fifth wave of computer technology.
e
The

The Mobile Wave argues that the changes brought by mobile computing are so M
big and widespread that it’s impossible for us to see it all, even though we are all Mobile Wave
o
immersed in it. Saylor explains that the current generation of mobile smartphones “Mobile intelligence will change how businesses
b
and tablet computers has set the stage to become the universal computing platform operate, and it will change entire industries and
i
for the world. In the hands of billions of people and accessible anywhere and anytime, the economies they power. With so much change, is
l
mobile computers are poised to become an appendage of the human being and an e it appropriate to call this a ‘Mobile Revolution?’ Is it
Michael Saylor is the chairman and CEO of the publicly essential tool for modern life. W akin to the Agricultural Revolution that transformed
traded company MicroStrategy. With degrees from MIT in humanity from nomadic groups of hunter–gatherers
Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering as well as Science, With the perspective of a historian, the precision of a technologist, and the pragmatism a into city dwellers, creating the foundation for the
Technology, and Society, he is a science historian, and a of a CEO, Saylor provides a panoramic view of the future mobile world. He describes how: v great city–states of Greece and Rome? Is it like the
formidable intellectual whom Slate called “mesmerizing.”
e Industrial Revolution that ushered in the modern
He is not just a high-tech entrepreneur, but also a
mechanized economies we see today?
serious scholar whose success in business stems from his A Harvard education will be Buying an item will be as easy
obsession since college—and really since childhood—with available to anyone with the as pointing our mobile device
understanding what Thomas Kuhn calls the “structure of I believe that mobile computing is the tipping point
touch of a screen. to scan and pay.
scientific revolutions.” He has appeared on 60 Minutes and technology for the larger Information Revolution.
Charlie Rose, and has been profiled in Newsweek, Time, Cash will become virtual Social mobile media will push That revolution started with the printing press in
Slate, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. software and crime proof. all businesses to think and act
the 1400s, but it wasn’t until the advent of computing
like software companies. technologies in the 1960s that the Information
Cars, homes, fruit, art, and more
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a leading provider
will be “tagged” so they can tell Employment will shift as Revolution began to accelerate its impact on society.
of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence
you about themselves. more service-oriented jobs are Mobile computing will be the catalyst that brings
(BI), mobile intelligence, and social intelligence
applications.  MicroStrategy’s BI platform enables automated by mobile software. society the most dramatic changes of the Information
Land and capital will become M
organizations to analyze vast amounts of data stored Revolution.”
more of a liability than an asset.
across their enterprises to make better business decisions. i
MicroStrategy’s mobile intelligence platform helps companies c
and organizations assemble mobile apps with embedded h
Products, businesses, industries, economies, and society will be altered forever
intelligence, transaction capability, and multimedia
as the mobile wave washes over us and changes the landscape. With so much change, a
content. MicroStrategy’s social intelligence applications
help enterprises harness the power of social networks for The Mobile Wave is a guidebook for individuals, business leaders, and public figures e
marketing and e-commerce. MicroStrategy offers all of its who must navigate the new terrain as mobile intelligence changes everything. l

enterprise technologies through its cloud platform. S Learn more about The Mobile Wave at:
Learn more about The Mobile Wave at: a www.microstrategy.com/themobilewave
Visit Michael Saylor at www.microstrategy.com
www.microstrategy.com/themobilewave y
l
Jacket Design by MicroStrategy Inc.
o Michael Saylor
Author Photograph by MicroStrategy Inc.
r
Cover Photograph © Depositphotos / Sybille Yates
$25.99 U.S. / $29.00 CAN
Chairman and CEO of MicroStrategy, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-59315-720-3
52599
Vanguard Press
The Perseus Books Group 9 781593 157203
www.perseusbooks.com
www.vanguardpressbooks.com Vanguard
Press
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page i
T H E M O B I L E W A V E
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page ii
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page iii
THE MOBILE
How Mobile Intelligence
Will Change Everything
MICHAEL SAYLOR
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page iv
Copyright © 2012 by Michael Saylor
Published in the United States by Vanguard Press,
a Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. For information, address Vanguard Press, 387 Park Avenue South, New York,
NY 10016.
Vanguard Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S.
by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please
contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut
Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call [phone], ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-59315-720-3
E-book ISBN 978-1-59315721-0
First Vanguard Press Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page v
To my parents,
Phyllis Ann and William J. Saylor, and Carl Kaysen,
who inspired my passion for the history of science.
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page vi
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/18/12 9:15 PM Page vii
C O N T E N T S
FOREWORD ix
1 THE WAVE 1
2 COMPUTERS 19
3 PAPER 41
4 ENTERTAINMENT 77
5 WALLET 93
6 SOCIAL NETWORKS 123
7 MEDICINE 145
8 EDUCATION 169
9 DEVELOPING WORLD 191
10 NEW WORLD 211
NOTES 239
REFERENCES 253
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 281
vii
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page viii
1593157203-Saylor_Design 4/17/12 8:04 PM Page ix
F O R E W O R D
I’m a technologist. And technologists, by our nature, embrace change,
radical change. The technological wave marking this second decade of
the twenty-first century is indeed radical. It is disruptive and transfor-
mational. But there is no need to fear it. We, as individuals, must learn to
understand its current state and its future potential to affect our daily
lives; leaders of corporations and heads of governments, as well, must
adapt to its powerful forces or risk seeing what they have built perish in
a relative instant.
I’ve written The Mobile Wave with the kind of appreciation for
today’s formidable technological currents that a veteran sea captain or
sailor might have for the Deep Blue and the rogue waves that can sud-
denly appear in its midst. Understand the wave, you can ride it. Refuse to
adjust, you will be swallowed. We have seen, in a short amount of time,
the disappearance of a large number of household brands that failed to
take sufficient and early heed of the software revolution that is upending
traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses and creating a globally perva-
sive digital economy.
Products we’ve lived with our entire lives are becoming software be-
cause of mobile computing technology. Magazines and newspapers are
becoming software, as are books. Everything in our wallets from IDs to
cash will become software, as we adopt pay-with-your-phone technol-
ogy. Music, for nearly a decade, has been software, as Steve Jobs and the
team at Apple so thoroughly understood. We see this transformation of
physical objects into software rippling through industry after industry,
ix