If You Want to See How We’ll Live In the Future…

…“look at how rich people are living today”.

Was said as a passing comment in a recent conversation. But I couldn’t let it just pass.

Think about it.

When you imagine Gordon Gecko from the movie Wall St. what image do you have in mind? Mine is the one of the poster boy of wealth clutching his massive brick of a mobile phone while brokering another million dollar deal. That film was release in 1987. At that time, cell phones cost $2,000 and calls were 50 cents a minute.

I didn’t get my first mobile phone until 1999.

In 2012 global mobile penetration hit 91%.

The same can be said for most emergent technologies. Flat panel TVs were once the purview of the truly wealthy. Now you can pick one up with your tub of red vines at Costco. Home theaters were once reserved for the wealthy. Now a McMansion in suburbia isn’t complete with a projector and surround sound.

3 years ago, opening the Uber app and ordering a black car was a true indulgence. Far more expensive than a cab, but so convenient and such a better experience than “slumming it”. Only 3 years later and I can use Uber’s (or Sidecar or Lyft or Hailo or…) app to request a car for the price of a cab, and sometimes even less.

So what are the 1% doing today that the 99% us aren’t yet?

The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed indeed.