Digital Media
The new digital age is upon us and its presence can be felt in every aspect of our lives, the way we communicate, the way we organise ourselves and even in the way we bank. The move towards an increasingly digital society will drive the way our future develops, new technologies will open new doors and close others, whilst it is nigh on impossible to predict the specific nature of these trends, one things is for sure, change is coming!
One area that is almost certain to evolve is the way we transfer information, whether it be between consumers, businesses or even government bodies. The likely introduction of a high-speed broadband infrastructure in the UK (capable of handling speeds of up to 100mbs, compared to a current average speed of just 2mbs) will revolutionise the way we view information and traditional geographical boundaries. Whilst the first wave of broadband technology saw a significant upturn in the number of people online, this next generation will fully integrate the majority of the population with their new virtual existence.
One significant example of the switch from physical to virtual markets is increased demand for downloaded music. This market has taken two forms; the legal download market where consumers are charged to download music from central sites such as iTunes or Napster and the illegal download market which is facilitated by the transfer of music between computers using a peer-to-peer system such as Lime Wire. In 2006 the number of songs download illegally was 10 times greater than the number of legal downloads, but as the market as evolved music companies have evolved their offer to encourage more legal downloads, including removing controversial DRM software (which restricted use of a song to a particular device or service) and offering free ‘bonus’ material with legal purchases.
Print media has also seen a sharp change in the market as more and more young people begin to use the internet as their primary source of news. This has revolutionised the industry and destroyed the revenue model, which had previously relied on classified advertising to supplement the price per unit, as advertisers switch to internet based advertising in order to offer more targeted campaigns and attracted the youth market.
As the flow of information increase the inevitable debate will be who controls this information? Is it the individual? The government? Big business? The answer, as yet, is unclear but there are examples of all three of these scenarios throughout the world. In China the communist government has received wide-spread criticism for restricting access to the internet, whilst is the western economies big businesses have demonstrated an ability to generate vast databases which contain specific details of individual consumers. This trend has prompted the launch of applications designed to let individuals “turn off the tap” which controls how their information is distributed, allowing different levels of access depending how ‘trustworthy’ a source is.
The likely hood is that the new digital age will impact your organisation, the question is how? The answer could lead you to solutions that help to reduce your admin costs, develop new markets or even invent entire new products that will change the direction of your business. To find out more about this driver of to find out more about how Futurist can help you to plan for the future, email us at enquiries@futurist.uk.com, or phone us on 0191 516 6669.
