In a series of digital future-related predictions made by Dr Hugh Bradlow - the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Australia's biggest telecom firm Telstra -, it has been projected that the computer tablets which the Australians will be using by the year 2020 will have the ability to be rolled like a newspaper and put in a pocket.

Dr Bradlow has also predicted that, by 2020, Australians will have personal digital concierges running their home; and rubbish bins in a household will be capable of creating a shopping list when empties are thrown into them by people.

Pointing out that the last ten years have witnessed a five-fold increase in electronic communication in Australia, Dr Bradlow said that it appears highly likely that the trend will continue to grow in the coming years; with smartphones driving the growth in the trend in the short term.

Acknowledging the fact that his predictions were essentially speculations which were based on technologies that are already available in the present times or are forthcoming in the near future, Dr Bradlow summed up that the year
2020 will apparently mark the age of "immersive technology."

About the basis of his predictions, Dr Bradlow said: "I can say with almost certainty that any technology that's going to be around in 2020, I will know about it today. I will have seen it in a lab, I will have read about it in papers, I will maybe even trialled it myself."