Introduction

It might be assumed that a book on wireless futures would concern itself solely with technological matters, while users of that technology are left for a different text. At this point in the book, however, we turn to those technologies regarding which the role and changing behaviours of the user are central. A concern with users helps define what those technologies might be, how they will evolve, and what changes they might bring about in user behaviour that will in turn have implications for the technology. In this chapter, we present an overview on the importance of user behaviour in this regard before offering some high-level prognoses concerning the future. Subsequent chapters will deal with particular technologies and themes, such as location, health and transport.

As will become clear, one cannot separate the evolution of user behaviours entirely from the possibilities that the wireless landscape affords – the two are inseparable. Nonetheless, an emphasis on the user can highlight issues that are sometimes neglected in wireless research. This can help guide insights into the future, which is our task here. The interface between devices and services and the user will be central to this, but so too will be the changing trajectories of actions enabled by new hardware and services. The interface is merely the prism for both what users can do and what they want to do, both of which broaden through time.