Nick Huhn - Creative Versatilist

My mom still laments the fact she disregarded my stock picks of MSFT, AOL and INTC a few years ago. By a few years ago I mean 1993 when I thought these 3 companies would change the world as we know it. Thanks to Al Gore’s invention of the internet and the proliferation of desktop PCs as a ubiquitous staple of life in homes and businesses, my predictions came to fruition (with the help of many other game-changing companies and socioeconomic shifts) and my family still jokingly regrets not listening to the insights of an inquisitive 14 year old.

Fast forward a few more years to the dawning of the iPod. While most people way cooler than me donned the white headphones as a fashion statement, I vowed not to own one until it became a more robust hub of one’s digital life and it became something more than a walkman with crappy storage features. Thankfully I had disposable income and an IRA account set up by then, so I nibbled on a few bites of the AAPL. Sure it’s been good to investors since 2001 or so, but sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I had invested as much in the stock as I did in my education and several other distractions since then. Yes, I predicted the iPhone too, but that still seems like a no-brainer to me.

Of course my predictions aren’t always right. Back in 2003 I said Google would be Netscaped in light of their impending IPO. Boy was I way wrong there. I didn’t understand the business like I do today, and honestly I’m not convinced they fully did either. Regardless, this is a round-about way of saying I have plenty of other predictions of how things will shake out with respect to the GOOG. Having been exposed to the enormous base of products and services Google offers for the enterprise, education and individuals, I can clearly see the enormity of the opportunity that awaits a company that benefits from learning and predicting what it’s users know, seek, and share. For me, monetizing behaviors through targeted ads was only the first chapter in this long and luscious fairy tale.

I question the current valuation of GOOG just as much as any other sensible business pundit, but I think the value of the assets lies in the treasure trove of data in the behavioral and - more importantly - commercial patterns of the vast and growing user base. It won’t be about search results a few years from now. It’ll be about leveraging highly focused usage patterns and predictive ‘intelligence’ to drive social and commercial interactions.

The Prediction: In a decade or so, my daughter will one day cruise through the mall with her Android-powered communication device and be prompted to join her friends (triangulated by AmazonGPS) at the food court to redeem her stored value credits from her Facebook profile for a delicious McTaco Lite. Oh and BTW download Miley Cyrus’ co-branded comeback single “Back when fries were legal” via bluetooth when you get there. Those pants are finally on sale at Banana, too.

This prediction is, uh, predicated on the assumption that our privacy continues to be extremely unprivate to companies like Google, Facebook and device OEMs. I’m anxious to see how this all pans out, and this is only my take on the flurry of interesting news recently colliding in the realms of social media and emerging technology. Maybe I’m way off, or maybe it’ll be another lottery ticket in the making if I can find the right places to invest or create a niche business.

How will ubiquitous information and omnipotent technology change your world?

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