It’s very much been a week for future-gazing in the IT industry.

While most retailers are busy using their snazzy business intelligence tools to find out if their January Sales have offset a poor Christmas, the techies have moved on to what we might be doing in five years.

First up is Bill Gates, who has given a number of high-profile interviews prior to stepping down from his role as Microsoft chief. He has been talking up the Microsoft Surface computer – basically a computer that looks like a table – where the whole of the tabletop is an interactive touchscreen. He believes that the humble keyboard and mouse could be replaced with systems that use natural user interfaces, such as touch, within home computing devices in as little as five years.

Also sticking his neck on the line is chipmaker Intel’s chief Paul Otellini, who spoke at the US Consumer Electronics Show earlier this week. He said that within five years consumer mobile devices will “augment reality”, providing access to “an internet that is proactive, predictive and context-aware”. The idea is that a device will know where its owner is, delivering information that is most relevant in the context of the user’s location and preferences.

Closer to home and laying down the gauntlet to retailers, BT has chipped in with its own forecasts. It believes that these trends in consumer technology will leave shoppers even more empowered than the internet has made them already. Retailers will have to fundamentally redesign their customer experience in response, says BT futurologist Ian Neild.

For example, BT expects that consumers will be able to use their mobile devices as an instant product directory tool, identifying similar or exact products simply by pointing and capturing an image of a desired item.

Neild said: “Stock availability will therefore become key. Shops will become increasingly focused on letting customers try the items, play the games or listen to the music. For clothes, you will want to feel the cloth and see how it fits and then negotiate with stores on price and perhaps even terms and conditions.”

The power of the consumer will also be felt increasingly through consumer reviews and shoppers will rely more on independent product reviews from consumers with similar characteristics and profiles to their own.

Neild said retailers must view this as an opportunity, not purely a threat. “This will potentially diminish the sway of brand loyalty somewhat, but other lucrative revenue streams will appear with these changes. Stores could get commission to show products to customers, just as advertisers pay for click-through on web sites. We are certainly looking at a world where serving the customer and 100 per cent availability is more important than ever,” he said.

The past two months of trading have been a rollercoaster for UK retailers. However, more greatly empowered consumers will ensure that, in the longer term, retail is going to be even more of a white-knuckle ride.

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