Categories: Articles

What Will Be

Tomorrow is a big day.

You don’t have to be a Mac Fanboi to say that. You don’t even have to be a proud Geek or Digital Marketing professional. Tomorrow is not about Apple. Tomorrow is not about whatever they’ve decided to call the new Apple Tablet (and yes, it’s coming tomorrow – the news is already out). It’s also not about how much CPU or connectivity this new device has. Just like the day before Apple announced the first iPhone in 2007, tomorrow is a day about "what will be."

The iPod changed the music industry. The iPhone changed the mobile industry. The new Apple tablet could very well change everything we know about computing and the Internet.

Sure, that’s a dramatic statement for effect, but if this Apple tablet lives up to the hype (things never do) or delivers on even a quarter of what is being swirled around in the rumour mill, we still have a new moment in time where computers move away from keyboards, mice, wires and moves quicker towards the connection between human beings, touching, connectivity and screens. Standard computer software won’t be all that great on this device, nor will standard mobile apps. It’s going to have to be something different. It’s going to have to be something new.

Don’t forget, "new" always equals "disruption."

No matter what the Apple tablet is (and only tomorrow will tell), it’s going to change the games (not just the game). It’s going to affect marketing, communications, advertising and all of the spheres we all play in. So, we can put aside what we hope this device will be. We can put aside what we think this device will be. We can just sit back, take a deep breathe and imagine what tomorrow will be. Folks on Twitter have said that, "it feels like Christmas Eve," while I tweeted out: "I don’t think people have talked this much about ‘tablets’ since Moses."

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to meet this new device, and I’m excited to see how it affects media, publishing and everything else.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.