Trends from CES

The annual Consumer Electronics Show is just ended; here, I'll compile reviews and assessments from selected journalists and pundits. 

Jason Hiner, in TechRepublic -- 

Hey professionals, watch for these mega-trends at CES 2014

January 3, 2014 

While there may not be major product announcements [at] CES, tech trends will emerge to shape 2014. Here's what to watch in business tech. 

Jason Hiner/TechRepublic

Sure, the Consumer Electronics Show may have consumer in its name but you can find plenty of tech with business implications at CES, especially now that workers are driving so much of tech adoption in today's business culture.

While most of the biggest product announcements are no longer made at CES, the show still gives us an excellent opportunity to take the temperature of emerging technologies and to get a feel for the most important vibes in the tech industry for the year ahead.

I've gotten lots of updates from technology vendors on what they're planning to talk show off at CES 2014. As a result, here are the four biggest trends that will define this year's International CES, for the professionals who pay attention to this stuff.

Let's count them down.

Jason goes on to describe these trends; see the link above for more. (Pointers to information in this blog in [brackets]). 

1. Wearables. [http://www.william-garrity.com/blog/tag/wearable]
2. The Internet of Things. [http://www.william-garrity.com/blog/tag/internetofthings]
3. Contextual computing. ("It's the stuff that Google Now does. It collects uncomfortable amounts of data about you and then uses it in ways that are just useful enough to make you forget about the discomfort. It takes your history and your preferences and your location and triangulates it to present information to you right as you need it, or even before you realize you might need or want it.") 
4. Consumerization of business tech. [http://www.william-garrity.com/blog/tag/consumerization]

Trends in 2014: Tim Bajarin

 This list of predictions is more eclectic than most in terms of the topics covered. See here for more lists. 

Tech Predictions for 2014

by Tim Bajarin   |   December 16th, 2013

For the last 27 years I have written an annual industry prediction column where I try to forecast what I see happening in the PC and CE markets in the New Year. To be fair, I spend thousands of hours each year researching these industries and their products and get to see inside the labs of many companies as well as peek into start-ups and garage shops all over the world. So what I predict has more to do with taking an intelligent guess about what I see happening in 2014 and less an actual prediction. So as I look into my crystal research ball, here is what I believe will happen in tech’s New Year.

1. Google spins out Motorola 
2. Large tablets for people to share. I don't see people getting a large tablet exclusively to share; we all already pass our tablets back and forth to each other.
3. Dual-OS laptops and desktops. I agree; these are just about to come to market. 
4. Apple will release an awesome productivity device. It's probably always a safe statement that Apple will do ____ that is arguably awesome. 
5. Smartphones and beacon-based sensors take off. iBeacon is Apple's branding of Bluetooth Low Energy, and would send notifications over a short distance (< 50 m) to smartphones. 
6. Smartwatches are dead in 2014. I differ; see here. 
7. PC market could grow in 2014. 
8. Internet of Everything goes mainstream. I don't know about "mainstream," but it's coming. See here. 
9. More acceptance of Chromebooks. 
10. Digital health will be big in 2014. 
11. 3-D cameras and printers will become more popular. 

Full list at link above. 

Trends in 2014: ReadWrite on Mobility

See also the tag Future and ReadWrite's predict series. 

Dan Rowinski starts this piece in ReadWrite by focusing on mobile-web sites -- e.g., sites often of the form mobile.___.___ or m.___.___ -- and moves on to his results for 2013 and, most important, his predictions for 2014: 

• No Apple TV set this year, again 
• Apple's iWatch arrives 
• Samsung's smartphone lead will decline. [I'm not so sure] 
• HTML5 ascends 
• Google Glass becomes a consumer product
• Android goes 64-bit 
• "Mobile" becomes ubiquitous 

In 2014, The Mobile Web Will Die—And Other Mobile Predictions

Also: Apple will release an iWatch, HTML5 will gain traction and Android will go 64-bit.

December 20, 2013 

In 2014, the mobile Web will die. That’s right, that bastardized version of the normal Web will crawl into a shallow grave and leave us all in peace. No more websites crippled with horrible “mobile.yourawfulwebsite.com” URLs. No more reading janky websites that display way too much fine print or omit crucial features when viewed on your smartphone or tablet.

The New York Times mobile site

How will we kill the mobile Web? Not with kindness, that’s for sure. The death of the mobile Web should be ruthless and efficient, coming on the backs of development, iteration and innovation. Google, Microsoft and Apple will lead the charge.

This year, we saw a lot of developmental gains in the browsers on mobile devices:

• Apple updated Safari in iOS 7 to be faster and more agile
• Google showed off its newest version of its Chrome browser at Google I/O in May this year to show the same website running on a PC, tablet and smartphone without a hitch
• Microsoft’s latest Internet Explorer in Windows 8.1 RT and Windows Phone 8 is the fastest and most diverse that the company has ever created
• Mozilla unleashed its Firefox OS on the world, a browser-based mobile operating system designed on the principles of HTML5.

The mobile Web will die because the companies that make the engines it ran upon are killing their mobile browsers and replacing them with fully functional versions that run on any device. In 2014, these browsers will be updated to put the final nail in its coffin.

In turn, developers will continue to build websites that can work across any screen size. Responsive design (what we do at ReadWrite to make the site look pretty everywhere) will continue to grow in 2014 as people realize that their old websites are losing them a lot of traffic from mobile devices.

That’s the prediction, at least. Now it's up to 2014 to prove me right.

Article continues at link above. 

Trends in 2014: Healthcare

Healthcare is said to be lagging other industries in using consumer technology to transform itself. 

By Leyl Master Back via Mashable, five things to track in 2014 regarding technology and healthcare. 

5 Health Tech Trends to Watch in 2014

2013 was a big year for consumer health technology. According to mobile tech consultancy Research2Guidance, there are now close to 100,000 mobile health apps in 62 app stores, with the top 10 apps generating over 4 million free downloads every day.

This year also saw increased adoption of wearable tech, such as the Nike+ FuelBand and Fitbit — a market that is expected to grow to 100 million units by the end of 2014.

So if 2013 was the year of wearables and health apps, what’s on tap for next year? Here are five exciting health tech trends to keep an eye on for the new year.

The trends are 

1. Data in the doctor's office -- the quantified self, wearable devices, and health and fitness tracking apps come together to present health status-related data to providers. 
2. Smart clothes -- instead of or to complement wearable devices. Some people would find a "smart shirt" more doable than a Fitbit. 
3. Augmented nutrition -- technology that will track very detailed infomation about food and nutrition. 
4. Virtual house calls -- telepresence! 
5. Health rewards -- badging meets healthcare. 

 See the full story at the link. 

Trends in 2014: Juniper

('Tis the season for predictions for 2014. Follow the tag "Future" for such as I encounter them.) 

The mobile consultancy Juniper Research has released its top ten technology predictions for 2014:

1. 2014: When Cities Get Smarter -- what with even broader deployment of sensors and cloud-based apps connecting transportation, healthcare, lighting, etc. 
2. mAgri to Build on mPayment Success in Developing Markets -- mAgri = "mobile agriculture" supporting crop management, yield, and product tracking; mPayment = "mobile payment" infrastructure enabling banking and financing, which is especially apt in the developing world
3. The Watershed Year for Wearables -- Google Glass and other smart glasses, smartwatches 
4. iPads & Tablets Flourish in Educational Settings
5. Mobile Fitness Devices Diversify into mHealth Arenas
6. Global 4G LTE Subscribers to double in 2014, as 4G LTE-Advanced roll out increases
7. Context Awareness in Mobile Computing Gathers Pace -- as devices and applications get smarter about providing information given where we are 
8. Disruption in the Home Gaming Market -- with Ouya and other "microconsoles"
9. The Cloud Becomes Personal -- particularly given the revelations regarding the NSA, folks will stand up their own personal clouds via domestic network-attached storage devices 
10. 3D Printer Shipments to Surge 

Juniper's press release is here; the full report is available here (free registration required). Business Insider's summary is here.