In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had a shared vision for the reach and impact of this new class of devices. Their ambition was to make these new devices so accessible that there would be “a computer on every desk and in every home”.

As their vision became reality, the world changed. New companies and entire industries descended on this new platform and rose to prominence.

A similar form of ubiquity has dripped off our desks and into our pockets.

We’re familiar with the transformation that’s happening as a result of the shift to mobile computing. But there’s a second order effect that’s beginning to trickle onto the market now, but will become a torrent soon enough.

Two examples from the headlines last week.

Nike introduced their Fuel Band- Two years of development came to light last week as Nike pulled the wraps off their latest addition to the Nike+ line. The band is a very slick little device that weds the display features of the fitbit with the styling of the Jawbone Up. One important distinction the Fuel Band has, in contrast to its two competitors, is a bluetooth connection. The resulting difference in user experience is notable.

No longer will a user have to batch upload their data to a backend webservice with an added dongle or accessory. With the Fuel Band, there can be a steady stream of realtime updates, routed through a paired device. The impact of this subtle distinction is an important one from a device design perspective as well from the user experience side.

Adafruit introduced Flora- Adafruit, long a purveyor and advocate of open source hardware introduced a new wearable computing platform and set of accessories targeted at makers, designers, hackers artists and engineers. One notable feature-  a bluetooth module. 

Don’t get me wrong bluetooth, in and of itself, is not that innovative (it’s been around a very long time). What we’re seeing is the second order effect of these new mobile computing platforms. 

In the past, if an engineer wanted to build a new device they were forced to make a difficult decision. Embed native connectivity, hello SPOT, and all of the added cost that goes along with it or rely on intermittently available, but cheap, wifi. With a device in every pocket that’s capable of routing devices and data onto the network, there is a third option.

And, I believe, last week’s news was just the tip of the iceberg for a groundswell of new devices and activity that’s to come from this new, ubiquitous, connectivity.