What are some other emerging technologies that companies need to be aware of to stay competitive?
If you look at communications, the reason that BlackBerry [mobile e-mail] devices are so successful is: It turned out we needed to improve communications when people travel. Next, what’s going to happen is improved communications not just between people, but also between people and machines. Radio Frequency Identification [RFID, which are electronic tags used to track goods within the supply chain], and RFID-related technologies have opened a huge new area. All the people who run warehouses are going to have real-time information about what’s inside, which they don’t actually have today. The definition of what a warehouse is is already changing. Volkswagen and Dell might store their products in the same warehouse, but where one warehouse ends and the other begins is determined by a dividing line on the floor. So getting to know where a product is becomes very important. Wal-Mart (WMT ) has gotten it, but most others have not. In the next five years, we’ll see an absolutely massive chan
