Nearly one in every four Americans now owns an e-reader or tablet computer, and that number is growing rapidly. In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, Apple saw sales of its iPad jump 111 percent from the same period a year earlier; an estimated 20 to 30 million people in the U.S. own one version or another of this market-dominating device. Meanwhile, worldwide smartphone sales grew nearly 50 percent in 2011, with 472 million such devices now in use.

Why do these statistics matter? Like it or not, these trends are shaping the future of everyone in the geospatial professions.