Wireless Computing or "Wi-Fi"

Instead of using wires and cables to connect all of the devices required to connect to the internet, or network(s), this connectivity will be done using digitally compressed radio frequencies.

The ability to take your Personal Information Pad anywhere you go, is too big and exciting a leap forwards for it NOT to happen. Getting rid of wires is a major advance at a time when the space underneath or behind the average desk is akin to a crazed worms convention. (If you think your own work area is bad, you want to see a large Corporate Server Room!)

Being able to work, communicate, study, shop, or just about anything else without the restrictions of a table are going to change everything.

Think about that.

It doesn't matter where you are, (Glacial Ice Flows and mountainous screes notwithstanding) or what you need in the way of communication or information, it will be readily available.

This has the very real potential to bring about the social changes that we have all been hearing about for the last ten years. Work from anywhere, talk from anywhere. (Although mobile phones do this now, they will inevitably merge into 3G enabled applications on your PIP)

It will take off slowly, as people find themselves charged for every access and MB of data transmitted, but public resistance will soon cause the WSP's (Wireless Service Providers) to re-examine their fees, and work towards lowering costs to the consumer to enerate mass adoption of the services, with probable subsidies from the hardware manufacturers.

Timeline? 3-10 years