Phone Numbers - The New IP Addresses?
Nowadays it seems that nobody remembers phone numbers. You don’t have to — you enter the number once, and never have to look at it again. It’s saved in your virtual phone book, easy to recall by finding the name of the intended recipient.
How long will it be, then, until you can just hold your cell phone next to another cell phone, and instantly swap information? This can already be done with iPhone apps like “Bump,” but how long until it’s a regular feature that everybody has and uses on a regular basis?
At that point, then, phone numbers will mean nothing. They will always be behind-the-scenes, just like an IP address.
When you want to go to Google.com, that’s what you type. You don’t type in 216.239.51.99, because it has an alias to represent it, and make it more friendly to us humans.
So, how long do you think until phone numbers will be JUST like this, to the point where you never lay eyes on anybody’s phone number, ever, unless you make an attempt to for whatever reason?