Tim Bray on the new mobile market:

Tablets and handsets can displace computers as play and reading devices, but they really can't become dominant as work tools until we have a better solution for high-speed low-friction text input. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see dramatic progress in this area; it’s so obviously the number-one usability barrier for everything that isn’t badged as a "computer".

I've seen some interesting approaches at solving the text input problem. But the other option is of course that other means of communicating become more prominent: videos, audio messages, etc. A flickr is worth 50 tweets, after all. But how do you program then?

Updated: Alex Payne thinks video will replace textual communication:

My generation will be at something of a loss when this new world comes about. In my life, I’ve been rewarded for communicating effectively online via text. I’m a reasonably effective verbal communicator, but not nearly as good as I’ll need to be to compete with the telepresence-native adults that the children of today will grow up to be.

Today’s digital natives will be tomorrow’s telegraph operators. The only way to survive will be to understand the impact of pervasive video communication before it sweeps us under our keyboards.