Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2014 as a forecast for the following decade; it presents Google Glass, whose consumer version was withdrawn soon after, self-driving cars, smartwatches and app-controlled homes as upcoming trends.
If you analyse market trends and how fast things are changing these days, you can already make out what will probably be one of the most profitable businesses of the next 10 years (if not the most profitable).
What’s more, almost everything is still to be done. Internet and today’s tech products may seem innovative, but the truth is we could already be talking about the obsolescence of the internet as we know it. We’re talking about what is known as…
…The internet of things
According to the expert report presented by Business Insider Intelligence, the internet of things will be a business worth billions, even bigger than today’s PC and tablet market, because the world is already moving beyond standalone devices. The work now is on having everything and everyone connected, anywhere and everywhere. But what exactly is the internet of things, and how will it change our lives?
(Read: The 33 profitable businesses of the future and the industries that will create jobs)
This imminent trend will change everything: vehicles that don’t just park themselves but that we will probably see driving on their own, or a fridge with software whose algorithm knows, from our shopping habits, that if we don’t buy milk or eggs on Friday we won’t make it to Monday.
This market will take in other trends that had so far been seen as the future: robotics, home automation, mobile apps and artificial intelligence will become practically one and the same. We have already seen how some farmers implanted chips in cows that sent a text message when they were in heat, by measuring the cow’s temperature.
Smartwatches and smart bands will, among other things, measure our vital signs and warn us, in a way, when our health is at risk. You won’t need to be in your living room to enjoy a film, because you’ll be able to watch one even in the doctor’s waiting room, thanks to Google Glass (Google’s smart glasses).
(Read: The future of business: the 7 main technology trends)
Thanks to mobile apps, we’ll be able to control any appliance in our home from anywhere in the world, from lowering a blind or closing a window to controlling the air conditioning.
Why will this market be so big?
This is probably the most enormous market with the greatest potential we have ever seen, because it’s not just about consumer gadgets for personal use: it will have lots of useful applications in the professional world. And it will be a giant market because everything still has to be connected to everything. In other words, every device or appliance will, in time, be connected to a network in some way.
Our phone, watch, glasses, band or whatever device ends up dominating our communication will be our identity, our wallet, probably our access key and the remote control for everything around us. We will control everything from apps.
Manufacturers of all kinds of products and appliances still have to adapt them to this new era. And those who miss the property boom may see construction grow again in this new era, or the adaptation of homes into new smart homes.
We can’t predict how many billions this sector will move, but we can say that getting into it can bring excellent profits, whether we’re talking about investing in these companies or about becoming part of the change.
Of course, this future is not free of controversy
A world where everything is connected to a network is a world that is very vulnerable to specialised crime: how easy it is to manipulate and access these interconnected devices exposes the huge security hole in this market. Of course, solving these security problems will also create a very profitable business of its own.
Further reading
Featured image: Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
