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Walter HarpDirector of Windows Live at Microsoft Corporation
Date of Birth: .
Country:  USA |
Content:
- The Evolving Inbox
- Lenta.ru: What role will email play in 2015?
- The Battle against Spam
- The Convergence of Email and Messaging
- The Future of Instant Messaging
- Cloud Computing vs. Traditional Applications
- Online Storage in 2015
- The Future of Devices
- A Glimpse into the Future
- The Future of the Internet
The Future of Technology: A Conversation with Walter Harp, Director of Windows Live at Microsoft
The Evolving Inbox
Walter Harp, the Director of Windows Live at Microsoft, recently shared his insights into the future of technology, specifically focusing on email, instant messaging, and cloud services.
Lenta.ru: What role will email play in 2015?
Walter Harp: Email has remained relatively unchanged for over a decade, centered around the inbox. This is bound to change due to various factors. For instance, users increasingly engage in instant messaging through email, although social networks have absorbed a significant portion of this communication.
Our research indicates that email remains the preferred platform for communication over instant messaging, social networks, and SMS. For these users, email inboxes have become invaluable, shaping their online behavior.
Lenta.ru: How has the inbox evolved over the past five years, and how do you anticipate it changing in the future?
Walter Harp: A notable trend we hadn't anticipated was the meteoric rise of Facebook. Currently, Facebook messages account for a quarter of all Microsoft email traffic, despite only becoming widely accessible in 2007.
Conversely, the volume of emails received by users has also increased substantially. Spam, which accounted for approximately half of all email traffic in 2006, now constitutes 90 percent. In terms of inbox size, Google Mail's initial offering of 1GB in 2004 was considered generous compared to current expectations of infinite storage capacity for industry leaders like Hotmail.com.
Additionally, Microsoft's email statistics reveal that users exchange an average of 1.5 billion photographs monthly, demonstrating the ongoing popularity of this service.
The Battle against Spam
Lenta.ru: Do you anticipate any decline in the growth of spam and other unwanted email?
Walter Harp: Addressing spam is akin to asking whether wars will ever cease globally. Unfortunately, it's a lucrative industry staffed by highly skilled individuals. Spammers and hackers swiftly adapt to changes in email security, rendering our defense mechanisms obsolete almost instantaneously. Therefore, I'm not optimistic that email will ever be completely free of such threats.
The Convergence of Email and Messaging
Lenta.ru: Online email vendors are increasingly offering additional services beyond simple message delivery. Is this the future of email, and do Gmail or Hotmail users necessarily need access to video calling, chat, and IP telephony?
Walter Harp: Let's consider the concept of "ante" in poker. Every player must contribute an initial stake before cards are dealt. Email also has an ante, which has increased significantly over time. Today, all services must provide ample inbox space, which was not the case a few years ago.
Additional functionality is also becoming a mandatory ante. However, we must question whether users truly need these services or if we are pursuing innovation for innovation's sake.
The Future of Instant Messaging
Lenta.ru: Are instant messaging services under threat from social networks and microblogging platforms?
Walter Harp: Social networks and microblogging platforms may indeed draw some users away from instant messaging. However, it's important to consider the reasons why people use instant messaging. For many, navigating the overwhelming amount of information shared across multiple platforms like Facebook, Yelp, and MySpace can be challenging. Instant messaging offers a way to cut through the noise and connect with those they truly care about.
Unlike social networks where users may have hundreds of connections, instant messaging contacts are typically limited to a select few with whom they desire to have meaningful conversations.
Cloud Computing vs. Traditional Applications
Lenta.ru: Are we truly moving to "the cloud," or is its significance overstated?
Walter Harp: The success of cloud computing is largely due to advancements in web standards, particularly HTML5. Internet bandwidth and latency have also improved significantly, while computing power has increased exponentially.
I believe cloud technologies have already become an essential part of our lives. Consider Excel, for example. Microsoft's Office Web Apps includes a web-based version of Excel, but the computational engine that powers it is not hosted online due to its complexity and resource requirements. Perhaps with further internet advancements, the full computational capabilities of the program will become accessible in the cloud.
Online Storage in 2015
Lenta.ru: What will online storage services look like in 2015?Walter Harp: Microsoft's SkyDrive platform currently operates on the principle of "access anytime anywhere." While this may evolve in the future, becoming more transparent and integrated with other Microsoft products, its primary function remains file storage.
For many users, however, online storage goes beyond mere data backup and serves as a synchronization tool. Power users, in particular, appreciate the ability to sync documents and other data from a netbook أثناء السفر using services like Windows Live Mesh and store them remotely.
Microsoft currently offers two services, SkyDrive and Mesh, allowing users to interact with the cloud in different ways. This provides flexibility for users to choose the service that best suits their needs, and Microsoft the opportunity to explore further integration of these capabilities.
The Future of Devices
Lenta.ru: What devices do you think people will be using to access the internet in 2015?
Walter Harp: The mobile device market is constantly evolving. While it's impossible to predict with certainty which devices will dominate five years from now, emerging trends suggest a focus on mobility, portability, and touch technology. Voice-based control and interaction are also expected to grow in popularity.
Touch screens themselves are not a novel concept. The recent surge in the popularity of touch screen-based devices, notably from Apple, is commendable. However, these devices rely on existing technology rather than groundbreaking innovations. Therefore, it's premature to declare the imminent demise of keyboards. Users still appreciate the tactile feel of physical keys, and manufacturers are exploring ways to simulate this experience on touch screens.
A Glimpse into the Future
Lenta.ru: If you could bring one technology from the year 2015 to the present day, what would it be?
Walter Harp: Often, we don't realize the transformative potential of a technology until after its introduction. Consider the example of the Sony Walkman. As the story goes, Sony conducted market research prior to its launch that advised against releasing the product.
Personally, I am most intrigued by network infrastructure, specifically wireless technologies such as WiMAX and other fourth-generation technologies. I believe wireless connectivity will only become more pervasive, with 4G followed by 5G, 10G, and beyond. This will enable virtually limitless access to online resources.
Therefore, if I could bring a single technology from the future, it would be fast, ubiquitous wireless internet access.
The Future of the Internet
Lenta.ru: How do you envision the future of the internet from a user's perspective? Will there be any dramatic changes in the next five years, or will things remain largely the same?
Walter Harp: The easiest way to answer this question is to consider how the internet has evolved over the past five years. There has been a significant advancement in the capabilities of web technologies. JavaScript, HTML5, Flash, and Silverlight empower developers and users with enhanced data access and storage options.
However, if you look at popular services, they haven't changed much. Amazon, for example, remains largely the same, albeit larger and more comprehensive.
I believe the internet will become omnipresent and taken for granted in the future. Mobile devices and wireless networks will further expand access. Consequently, people will have higher expectations of the internet, considering as commonplace capabilities that now seem extraordinary.
For instance, I envision being on a bus and using my smartphone to conduct online banking or accessing a secure corporate network to check my email. A simple example: If you're bored at dinner, you might interact with virtual assistants or chat with customer service without taking out a device.
