There are clear innovations and implementations of current technology that can be safely called inevitable. One of these is ubiquitous wireless. We will be surrounded by secure broadband available by subscription, and compatible with wireless devices. Wireless devices compatible with broadband will include laptops, PDAs, phones, and electronics built into vehicles, etc.
If this is true, then some industries will join the buggy-whip industry:
Phone companies: why pay for phone service if your wireless phone is a tiny part of a cheap broadband service. Internet traffic incurred by telephone quality duplex audio is a drop in the bucket.
Cable providers: If I have access to streaming video straight from the media companies, why pay a cable company for anything? I might pay HBO for access to their channel, but there is no room for Comcast. The old line between broadcast and cable TV will be irrelevant.
Traditional and Satellite Radio: Internet radio is already catching on. When devices and wireless grow to maturity, there is no need for radio. Your music preferences will be targeted much more specifically than a set of 20 FM stations can satisfy, making the listening experience far better. The 2-way directionality of streaming radio (broadcasters know what IP addresses are listening, and when) make the value proposition for advertisers far better. Finally, the global nature of IP eliminates the problems of range and signal quality.
I don’t mean to sound gloomy, in fact, this is not a gloomy forecast. Leaving horse drawn buggies for cars was a major milestone in economic advancement. So too, leaving single-application wires for IP-based wireless broadband is going to be a great milestone. Communications technology is the lubricant of innovation and trade. I would expect global growth to accelerate into these advancements, and remain at a generally accelerated pace thereafter.
In this speculative possible state of the world, investors might benefit from:
underweight companies with revenues largely based on phone, cable, and radio
underweight traditional-radio advertising companies
overweight equities
overweight internet advertisers and IP-intelligence aggregators
overweight internet applications providers
Dan Von Kohorn 