Unless you work in technological development, it’s rare that we have time in our day to think about technology, but it is changing faster than most of us realise. What on earth is next?

Every year a new mobile phone is released. As we compare it to the previous model, we are amazed by how much better the new model is, but how often do we stop and think about how much the product has developed over the past few years?

Probably the biggest changes in recent years have been to mobile phones. Nowadays we can walk down the street with the option of watching television; use satellite navigation to not only show us the way to the nearest Starbucks, but also to find it for us first; we can play numerous games on our touch screen device; or we can even stop to capture a moment with a clear, high definition photo.

Compare this to just twelve years ago, when Nokia released an amazing phone that everybody wanted, the Nokia 3310. With the amazing Snake and downloadable ringtones on its small black and white screen, it’s easy to see why it was the must-have item back then.

There have also been large changes in computer development each year. They have not only become immensely smaller, faster and lighter, but they have also grown less expensive over recent years. This is due to such high demand and the technology becoming available to create more laptops at a lower price. Now the next stage of development for computers are tablets – portable computer devices that carry more power than a mobile phone, but which are slightly less portable as they’re slightly larger.

Applications (or apps) for both mobiles and computers seem to present the next window of opportunity. This opens the opportunity for mobiles to do more than they can already do via additional software that can easily be downloaded from your device’s app store.

Apps can add satellite navigation to any new 3G or 4G enabled smartphone. They give you the opportunity to carry your up to date bank statement with you at all times, or even to make an immediate payment to somebody else’s account. There are apps to show you the current and future weather anywhere in the world, apps that can let you know when the next bus is due as you’re walking to a bus stop, the latest sports updates and news with videos of the updates. These are apps that are already available – the list of app potential is endless.

David Ellis writes on behalf of http://www.spuddmobile.com/.