OMG. I just uncovered a hard copy of one of my application essays I wrote to get into UCLA Anderson Business School in 2003. Before you read this, keep in mind, smartphones were not yet invented. Not the iPhone, the iPad, Android, Windows Phone, nothing. Facebook — not yet launched. GPS navigation on your phone, what’s that? IoT was not a word yet. To give perspective, the Motorola RAZR camera phone was just about to be launched the *following* year as THE coolest new thing, and it had a WAP browser. (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1712338,00.asp). And yes, Madonna was still my JAM.
“Imagine this: waking up in the morning to your alarm clock playing a new Madonna single which was released just minutes ago. Your alarm clock downloaded the single as an MP3 wirelessly while you were still in mid-dream! Wiping the sleep from your eyes, you grudgingly head out for that morning jog, portable Walkman in tow. With integrated GPS, this Walkman not only provides music to keep you awake, but also maps for you the most scenic jog route and keeps track of exactly how many miles you have run. In the midst of your morning jog, it so happens that an important customer on the East Coast faces a time critical fire with one of your products. Fortunately, your Walkman is also a phone(!), so you can take the call. Wheezing, you provide the necessary information to save your customer one month time to market. Feeling productive, you convince yourself you’ve earned the right to skip the last mile and grab a donut instead. You return home and get dressed for work. Before you leave, you toss a frozen turkey into the oven. Your oven will wirelessly download the instructions to cooks your turkey based on its weight so that it will be warm and delicious when you return home. You get in your car and head out to a new customer site. Your automobile navigation system directs you, in stereo, via your car speakers. Along the way, you get another call, this time it’s your husband. You click accept and there he is on an LCD monitor in the car, still in his underwear. He just called to wish you a good day, and ‘oh, your lipstick looks smeared.’ … ”
I can’t believe 11 years later I am still working on trying to realize some of that vision.