Chennai: No matter which economy you belong to, whatever be your status – individual or company or government – you do have a digital identity and that identity is present on the dark or bright side of the net. And the scary part, it is not your choice anymore, says management expert Vijaykumar Jayaram.
He says, “Let us go back to the 80s. When personal computers evolved, Bill Gates made a statement ‘for all future computing 640kb will be more than sufficient”.
Would you still call him a visionary? Why? Because in the next generation all memory barriers caved in and post 90s a digital war broke out around the globe between two types of corporate factions.
Except for crack-shots in the industries, the public hardly felt this war happening. How? We had the PC giants like Apple, IBM and telecom giants like AT&T on one side of the war and on the other side we had Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Siemens et al. Both factions were fighting to take control of the digital customers around the world.
Elaborating on this digital war, he says, “In this digital world war 1 & 2 the non PC – personal computing side won as computing devises could not replace or control the need for watches, television sets, refrigerators or automobiles for travel.”
“Since Y2K cleared off, 2000 saw the growth of buffer companies, these are those corporates who manufactured goods or services on both sides of the faction. I call them buffer because they were neutral in the digital war. Many more of them understood the game and tried to acquire or start producing products on both sides of the digital divide.”
Vijaykumar adds, “Moving on to the movie climax of digital wars, we now witness a smart-phone that has almost replaced a laptop. And with high speeds of connectivity it has certainly replaced or reduced the TV watching into Tube watching! And now with the IOT (Internet of Things) AI in Alexa or other breeds have changed our living life styles. You can set the AC temperature in your bedroom, as you leave a hot weather Chennai field office. Today even bed ridden patients can take care of themselves much better. One can reduce fan speed or connect to one or more electrical or electronic devises to control them. And Alexa & Co does all this just by hearing the patient’s voice commands”.
“Chennai has many houses with such devices. As you remove stock from the refrigerator or kitchen shelves your monthly grocery list is automatically generated without you having to apply thought. Further on, what are the future possibilities – I leave it to the imagination or creativity of readers”.
The digital world wide war is now between two different conceptual factions. And the buffer companies are playing wait and watch or bait and click. The end result of this www depends on us – the customers, now well known as netizens.
“Let us summarise the future options with an example. If online education and virtual classroom interactions are a big success then there is no need for the student to travel and study in a big infra-structured campus. Food or groceries or even a Jacuzzi bath tub can be delivered to your home after you shop online.”
“Therefore will big malls, shopping marts, showrooms, hospitals, bank visits be reduced? Or would they eventually go nil on footfalls? This lockdown by corona has only helped to put the above theory into a research test”, he winds up.