iPad A New Technology Paradigm -- A Reluctant Admission
Let me start out by saying I hate the word "paradigm." It's sooo 1990s. Wasn't the Internet going to change the world? Oh, my … did the earth just move? Did my chair shake? Nah, it was just a bunch of hyped up folks trying to sell me stuff.
On the other hand, where would we be without the Internet? The Internet spawned Google; it created self-service computing, where anyone can find or buy just about anything at any time; and it exploded business models, including media, travel, and more brick-and-mortar stores than anyone can count. So you certainly have to acknowledge (even if you hate the word, too) that the Internet really changed the computing "paradigm."
While the Internet -- along with the client-server model and wireless -- have been ground-shifting technologies that have changed the world as we know it, as we put these three technologies together we need to prepare for the next new technology paradigm: The Age of the Tablet, or at least, the iPad.
Let me preface this by saying that I hate Apple, too. I find it to be a self-important, pompous, arrogant, expensive and closed technology company. But they do make nice products -- and I hate it when I find myself buying their stuff, which I have to admit I do. That said, this simple infrastructure will change not just the way that people interface with computers, but how we think about technology. And while we currently see few tablet/iPad financial applications, this new paradigm eventually will change the way that our industry interfaces with our employees, clients, vendors and interested parties.
Why am I so high on tablets? Tablets will be the next wave because of four major advantages: they're always on, they feature ubiquitous connectivity, they offer ease of use and they're lightweight. These characteristics make tablets more attractive than the alternatives -- they're more intuitive and more immediate than laptops and desktop computers, and they're larger than smartphones (for us nearly blind aging boomers). Give these devices a front-facing camera for videoconferencing, better connectivity and more sophisticated applications, and this will surely be the next killer device.
So what will these "more sophisticated" applications be? Certainly the first applications will be more retail-oriented than institutional. I don't expect to see trading stations configured with a dozen tablets instead of 20-inch LCD monitors.
But think about retail trading applications. I could easily see porting a retail trading app to a tablet. If I was an online retail broker, I would cater to Jim Cramer's followers and develop an online market data, charting, research and trading application so viewers could watch Cramer with their tablets in their laps and trade. And beyond online brokerage, there are a host of applications for the mobile financial professional, from applications to help financial consultants review portfolios with their clients to apps that enable the electronic signing of documents.
Killer Institutional Apps
While it is more intuitive to think about individual investors using tablets, we eventually will see institutions developing tablet-based applications as well. Institutional applications may be as straightforward as real-time operational dashboards, risk management platforms and positional alerts, or more complex applications that allow sales and service professionals to be more effective on business calls. They may even include applications focused on portfolio managers, traders and analysts to help them more easily keep abreast of the world when they aren't sitting at their desks.
No matter how much I hate the word "paradigm" and Apple, I must admit that the iPad has changed the computing paradigm. As we continue to extend the ubiquitous computational fabric, technology will continue to be pushed further and further away from the corporate environment, formal desk and trading floor into the realm of complete human immersion. While this may mean that it becomes more difficult to separate our business and personal lives, it will extend how we define what and how we work into new and exciting directions, creating opportunities to develop more immersive infrastructures, services and business models. In other words, it will be a whole new computing paradigm.
Larry Tabb is the founder and CEO of TABB Group, the financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets. Founded in 2003 and based on the interview-based research methodology of "first-person knowledge" he developed, TABB Group ... View Full Bio
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