In the near future, cellphones will displace PCs as the main way to access the internet, and voice-recognition and “air keyboards” will become the primary way of interacting with your gadgets, a new study predicts.

The cellphone generation
The Pew / Internet survey of 578 industry leaders and analysts finds 77% agree with the statement: “The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020”.

Voice commands and projected keyboards
In a related prediction 64% agree that in 2020, voice-recognition will feature prominently in communications appliances and that “a small handheld Internet appliance allows you to display and use a full-size virtual keyboard on any flat surface for those moments when you would prefer not to talk aloud to your networked computer. It is common to see people ‘air-typing’ as they interface with the projection of a keyboard visible only to them.

Real / virtual worlds merge
Virtual worlds are also seen as encroaching on – sorry, augmenting – our real life experience. 55% agree that by 2020:

“Most well-equipped Internet users will spend some part of their waking hours — at work and at play — at least partially linked to augmentations of the real world or alternate worlds. This lifestyle involves seamless transitions between artificial reality, virtual reality, and the status formerly known as 'real life'."

Pew’s previous life-in-2020 survey, in 2006, found most thought English would come to dominate the internet, and that luddites would commit acts of anti-technology terror by 2020.

The full Pew / Internet “The Future of the Internet" survey is online here.