Not far is the day when broadband transmission capacity is over 1 GB/sec. All movies and TV shows new and old will be accesible instantly on demand. Real time multiconferencing or live personal broadcasting will be common routine with a cell phone. Not that we can not do that right now, nothing amazing, just a matter of making it easily available to the masses as a daily routine, in a split second.
But wait...
What will impede me to run any software from any computer? Say, I could run Visual Studio from the internet in my office, home, laptop, my friend's pc, or even my neighbors and have my settings and projects stored in my Yahoo briefcase. Instead of running it from my HD, confined to one computer, I could run it from Yahoo's HD and access it everywhere I want. Think about it. What would computers would be good for? Just to play the role of a dumb terminal, more like a TV ?
Software will be available by subscription, buy one license, use it everywhere. Better yet, ISPs will offer packages with unlimited software use for a fee. The end of software as we know it? Calculators, mailers, notepads, painters, browsers, word processors, everything available from everywhere. No installations, no upgradings, no removing. Nothing. Pay and play.
But how about the OS ? Will it be relegated to the only purpose it should have had since the begining? Just to control basic input output devices? Who do you think is more likely to be the winner OS in this new brave world?
Will powerful companies play tough enough and bribe every communications company out there in an attempt to derail progress? Or will they smartly adapt and invest in the best technology to position themselves at the top of the wave?
Only time will tell, it's not a matter of if, but how soon.