Ahh, the New Year. I think all of us want to know what’s
happening out there – and what will
happen as well. Being able to peer into the proverbial crystal ball has never
been more important and no one does it better for the world of technology than the
brilliant Mary Meeker of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, the leading VC
outfit in Silicon Valley.
Twice a year, Ms. Meeker publishes what amounts to a state
of the internet report; if you keep up on TechCrunch
then this is old news but if you aren’t familiar with Ms. Meeker then take a few
minutes (probably more, because the deck is 88 slides long!) to think about
what she’s reporting.
Some of her conclusions seem inevitable:
- · the rapid rise of mobile
- · the stunning growth of tablets in the USA (up from 2% in ’09 to 29% today)
- · the demise of Windows and the concomitant growth of iOS and Android
But other observations are more subtle and, I think, more
profound, especially her contention that we are rapidly moving from an “asset-heavy”
world to an “asset-light” one. This one
requires some thought, but my favorite slide was the one where she introduces
the concept with a slide that says “Be a
25 year Old”; the implication being that the concept of moving from a world
“things” to the cloud-based reality is already old-hat for Gen Yers.
And, Ms. Meeker is unyielding in saying that the change has
only just begun. According to her, we’re still in the “Wild West”. So do yourself a favor; check
out the future with Mary Meeker at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95259089/KPCB-Internet-Trends-2012.
