Killer Apps in the Gigabit Age

The age of gigabit connectivity is dawning and will advance in coming years. The only question is how quickly it might become widespread. To explore the possibilities of the next leap in connectivity we asked thousands of experts and Internet builders to share their thoughts about likely new Internet activities and applications that might emerge in the gigabit age. Following is a selection of respondent answers that speak to each of the themes.

1. People’s basic interactions and their ability to ‘be together’ and collaborate will change in the age of vivid telepresence -- enabling people to instantly ‘meet face-to-face’ in cyberspace with no travel necessary.
2. Augmented reality will extend people’s sense and understanding of their real-life surroundings and virtual reality will make some spaces, such as gaming worlds and other simulated environments, even more compelling places to hang out.
3. The connection between humans and technology will tighten as machines gather, assess, and display real-time personalized information in an ‘always-on’ environment. This integration will affect many activities—including thinking, the documentation of life events (‘life-logging’), and coordination of daily schedules.
4. Specific economic and social sectors will be especially impacted; health/medicine and education were mentioned often.
5. New digital divides may open as people gain opportunities on different timelines and with different tools.
6. Who knows? ‘I have no idea due to rapid change.’ ‘The best Internet apps are yet to emerge.’ ‘If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you, I would invest in it!’
7. Advances will be gradual for various reasons: Bandwidth is not the issue. The US will lag because a widespread gigabit network is not easily achieved.