The Mobile Future Is About Much More Than Apps

The pace of innovation in the mobile industry is getting faster and faster. It is relentless if you are either an entrepreneur or consumer.

"They're going to have as much RAM as you used to have in your laptop two years ago -- now in the phone," says angel investor Eghosa Omigui. But while hardware is improving exponentially, we seem to be lagging in our imagination and ways to use these ingenious, disruptive devices. Human interface is a fast growing topic and trendy investment theme. Last year Microsoft unveiled the Kinect accessory, turning their Xbox 360 game console into a gesture-driven device. The imaginations of engineers everywhere are running wild with possibilities about how we can better interact with our devices, but not fast enough for consumers.

The 2-year-old iPad is radically changing our perception of personal computing and it is becoming clear that tablets are destined to take over as the standard PC device. The massive computing and processing power surge will undoubtedly produce thousands of new products related to hardware and productivity, from solving the typing issue to improving battery life to even projecting video and images directly from your smartphone. It would be shortsighted to think that the opportunities in this mobile gold rush are limited just to apps.