Think back across the last 100 years, what will email in 100 years look like? The world of 1914 is as different from the world today as possible. The technology we have now was considered science fiction back then, and anyone thinking that instant communication on a global scale would be available to any teenager with an allowance was grounds to get you thrown in the mental ward.
Since then we’ve commercialized planes, created cars that run on plants, and, of course, shrunk the world down to fit a space no larger than a deck of cards. Yes, with the power of our smartphones and the internet, we have made the world one single community. But that makes you wonder, what more is there to do? What more is there to accomplish over the next 100 years, and how will that change our current modes of marketing?
Email in 100 Years: what will our favorite form of communication look like?
Learning from History
No longer are television and radio ads kings of advertisement. Forget print magazines and newspapers—mediums that people thought would last forever. 100 years later, the buzz is all about the internet and going digital; social communication and email. But what put the favor in one corner over the other? What was it that brought the internet to the forefront of the marketing world? Access and ease of use, exactly why we love email so much.
Email connects us to people, and the instantaneous nature of modern communication is why marketing has evolved into tighter formats and quicker snippets. But can you really get faster than sending a message instantly into someone’s pocket? Not really, but that’s why access and speed are not going to be the determinants of the next evolution in email. No, the next hundred years will see email change into not just a communication service, but a platform providing service as well.
Future Functionality
“Call us to get an estimate today!” That’s a fair go-to call-to-action. But what if in the future the email itself could provide the quote for the customer without them having to make any real effort? Say, for example, that you’re looking to hire painters and they need to measure your wall space to determine how much paint they’ll need and what the service will cost you. Eventually, your phone will be able to digitally scan whatever room you are in and submit those measurements to a program in the email that will automatically give you an estimate. All it’ll take will be a click of a button to engage an embedded program within the email.
Think that’s just science fiction talking? Take a look around, the more high tech corners of the internet and check what’s making news recently. An independent company has created a phone app that takes exact measurements from the phone’s camera using features already found within the phone. That’s today! Forget what that’ll be in a hundred years, we may be seeing this in ten or fifteen! And why does that have to stop there? Think of all the other services that could use this technology, like interior design or even event planners. And that’s only one technology, who knows what else will be coming out over the next century. Email in 100 years may still remain the easy-to-use pocket friendly communicator, but it definitely won’t be just “email” anymore. That’s a guarantee.
[ “5934”]
