The Big Idea
By Thomas Garrity, Editor and Analyst, Cabot Small-Cap Confidential
Excerpt from Cabot Small-Cap Confidential 9/4/09
It’s a familiar story: you’re having dinner at a restaurant when the conversation turns to movies, and no one can remember the name of that actress, the one who was in that movie about space. Not too long ago, you would struggle to remember until your entrees arrived, then move on—maybe you’d look up the answer when you got home, but probably not.
Today though, more likely than not, one of your dinner companions pulls out a cell phone and looks what’s-her-name up on the Internet, and the question is settled before the waiter returns. Regardless of your feelings on the etiquette of Googling at the dinner table, the fact that it’s possible—and frequently done—reflects nothing less than a profound change in the way we live.
The Internet is everywhere now: on the phone in your pocket, in handheld games, on a TV in the back of a taxi cab, even in some light fixtures. But there’s one place where the omnipresent Internet is still conspicuously absent, and that’s on your laptop computer when you’re anywhere but a designated hotspot.
It’s a curious oversight, given that the computer is the first, and best, Internet-browsing machine, and given users’ increasing dependence on the Internet for everything from document storage to streaming video. But wander more than 30 feet from Starbucks, or try to access your home wireless network from your backyard, and you’ll find yourself cut off from the world, flailing for a fading signal.
Now, there’s one company determined to change that, to give you access to videos and documents, to your email and instant messages, wherever you want. Call it Internet everywhere.
Cabot Small-Cap Confidential
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