As predictions go, I think this is a pretty solid one, though the timing may be out:
By 2020, no-one will use telephone numbers any more.
Let’s face it, these days we don’t twirl the dial, press the buttons, or call the operator. You enter your new contact’s number into your cellphone/Outlook – and then never looked at again. Because why should you? When you call them, you find them by name (not number), when they call you, you know who it is by their name appearing on the screen (not their number). And then much of the time you’ll contact them by email/twitter/Skype or whatever other means of comms that is closest to hand.
So what’s the point of telephone numbers?
It would be just as (un)useful to go to a website by typing in 209.85.171.100 instead of google.com. Or giving someone’s address as Longitude 48.8889, Latitude 2.123234….
No, the future of communications is seamless (see my other posts about twitter/sms/etc) both in terms of what methods we use to pass the message, and how we identify where that message is going.
My thoughts about targeting, psychology and data - all things that drive my company, 