Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2014 as a forecast for the following 5 to 10 years, a period that has now passed; its references to Google Glass, space tourism plans and Tesla’s prospects reflect 2014.
Although it’s hard to anticipate the future and try to predict where many of the advances now happening in the business world will take us, we can already see some moves towards certain sectors, products or industries that are emerging and will probably change the world we live in completely.
These are changes that create opportunities for the quickest, and as so often happens, we will almost certainly fall short in our estimates: in the next 5 or 10 years “things” will appear that right now we can’t even imagine.
As investors, we try to predict many of these moves so that we can catch the wave in time; as entrepreneurs, it’s a matter of finding some way to take part in businesses of this kind.
There’s little more we can say about the internet of things, an industry we have already included as probably one of the most profitable businesses for the coming years. Everything will be connected to everything, in a union of electricity, robotics, home automation and mobile apps with our homes and with products as ordinary as a washing machine or a window. If we add the niche of smart cities, the industry is estimated to be worth many hundreds of billions.
2. Augmented reality.
Augmented reality is, quite literally, already a reality. Google Glass opened the way, and Facebook’s purchase of a company specialising in augmented reality suggests that this sector, too, will soon be moving large sums of money.
3. No more cables.
Many companies are now interested in freeing people from depending on cables for household appliances and mobile devices. The company that finds the solution (probably wireless) so that we no longer have to “plug” the television or the washing machine into the mains will strike gold.
4. The answer to secure passwords.
Every day we hear of new cases of companies or people who have fallen victim to hackers through identity theft or data theft. We all have different passwords to access dozens of sites, including social networks. The future is that passwords as we know them today will end up disappearing. The solution may come from eye recognition, or perhaps from a voice recognition system. Perhaps it will be something else. We are researching the solutions that various companies have.
5. A solution for digital media.
There has been a misunderstanding between online newspapers and their regular readers. Readers want everything for free, and they aren’t willing to pay for something that is available online for free. But there’s more: readers are also annoyed by advertising. And that means the digital media, which have seen their print sales fall, are making significant losses. Journalism isn’t paying off for them.
At some point, online content will cost readers money, because otherwise the situation looks unsustainable. At some point, a company will acquire the rights to hundreds of media outlets and charge an annual fee to readers who want to enjoy that content. The fee will probably be low, but in the future that fee will exist.
6. Mobile payments.
Clearly the future of money is that physical coins and notes disappear. Mobile payments will end up everywhere, in clothes shops, in restaurants and even in a sweet shop. Our phone will be our wallet. And that is one of the futures we are most sure about.
7. Commercial space travel.
Until now, only wealthy people have been able to afford to travel to space as tourists. Richard Branson is working to make this kind of trip affordable for everyone. In time, the question won’t be whether to go to Marbella or Ibiza, but whether to travel to Mars or the Moon.
8. Graphene.
This material, which still raises some doubts, is also finding future applications that would be very viable. As soon as someone finds the key to combining it with other materials at a low price, a whole new world will open up before our eyes.
9. Online education.
We are seeing a considerable rise in sales of online courses, and distance learning may well end up moving into the formal education system. This idea may have more chances in some countries than in others, but in principle the future of private tutoring, even as a way to earn some extra money, is clearly online.
10. Developing powerful electric cars.
Tesla seems to have a chance of developing the electric car of the future, although it is still only 15% of the way to what the electric vehicle of the future will probably be like: a long-lasting battery, perhaps even (why not?) a self-recharging battery, and a car that reaches high speeds on electric power alone.
11. Driverless cars.
I really believe that at some point in the near future, Tesla will be bought by Google or by Apple, to combine their technologies and take control of the industry.
In a previous article we looked at what may be the 9 most profitable businesses in the short term, where we discussed:
- Solar energy storage.
- Commercial drones, and probably personal ones too.
- Robots.
- Mobile apps.
- Smart clothing.
- Luxury goods online.
- Selling erotic products.
- Organic food.
- Smart cities.
Further reading
Featured image: Antonio Zugaldia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
