Is it the future yet?

I was chatting with some colleagues recently about the boyhood notion of 'The Future' where we have things like touchscreen tablets, 3D augmented reality and voice activated anything.  We're there.  It's the future.

So why haven't I started to have expectations about the next future?  I get impressed when I see videos from TED demonstrating the latest tech, or find some startup that just got VC money to develop the newest and coolest thingamajig-- but I don't really have a

 idea of the future any more.  Am I too old?

When we were kids, it was

.  Even Marty McFly was zooming around on hoverboards and flying, garbage-powered cars and that was 2010.  (According to 1985).  2000 came and went

When I think about the future in the marketing sense, people will still reference Minority Report where Tom Cruise's

 eyeballs trigger customized marketing messages in the subway, the mall and most famously the gap.  But that level of customization exists right now.  Not the scanning of the eyeballs, but the custom offers based on who you are, where you are, and when you are there, not to mention the referencing of past purchases, the CRM designed to help with sizes, styles, etc...

A colleague of mine was describing Harry Rosen's system for keeping track of product purchases so that styles can be recommended based on taste-- but does the store need to scan your eyeball for that and pretend like they knew who you were, or can they simply ask you for your phone number or loyalty card and present great ideas, offers, etc while you're in the store.  We're there already.  Again--- it's the future.

Does anyone remember what was on the ground in the Jetsons?  They had flying cars, moving walkways, and houses on stilts--- but they never showed the ground.  I think it was the Flintstones, and here's why:

As much as we talk about mobile adoption rates, smart phone penetration, HTML5, app stores, and location based services, the majority of the world is still using a feature phone, with no access to broadband or rich content.  Most of the world (except for marketers) are living the Flintstones, and looking up at the Jetsons.

It wasn't the future and the past.  It was the haves and the have-nots.

Marketers, though intent on meeting objectives for their target audience, should not alienate some consumers at the expense of gaining others. Apps are cool, but what are you doing for your customer who has finally figured out how to use a Fire Fox on the internets?