Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2013, with forecasts for 2014. Several have since played out differently: Google Glass was withdrawn from the consumer market, Apple’s watch launched as Apple Watch rather than iWatch, and cash did not disappear in 2014.
A few weeks ago we published 10 technology trends that are changing the way we do business today. Juniper is a research firm that studies technology trends, and if its recent forecasts for 2014 are right (and for now everything suggests they are on track), anyone who wants to do business in the new world should start looking for ways to get into these sectors or invest in them somehow.
Read also:
- 10 jobs and businesses that will be booming in 2020
- The 33 profitable businesses of the future and the industries that will create jobs
1. Smart cities and smart homes
Both cities and homes will become smarter. We will be surrounded by sensors and apps that connect the switching of streetlights, traffic lights and transport. Exactly the same is happening in homes: robotics and home automation, together with apps, will make it possible for anyone to start cooking dinner from the office, close a blind remotely and have full control over their home.
2. Mobile payments
Mobile wallets are growing at a good pace. By 2014, many people will probably not need to carry cash or cards to do their shopping, because the number of shops and services where we can pay with our phone will have grown.
3. New mobile devices
Will the laptop become obsolete? Google already has Google Glass and Samsung has its smartwatches. We will also have Apple’s iWatch, and probably other tech devices we don’t know about yet. What will the mobile device of the future be? Which will be the most profitable industry within mobile devices? Good question.
4. iPads and tablets will spread in schools. Goodbye to books?
It makes sense: any device weighing 100 grams can store tens of thousands of books, and yet we keep loading our children with 20 kilos on their backs. Many schools are already buying computers, while others are asking parents to buy their children a tablet so they won’t need to buy many of the textbooks. Publishers will probably have to adapt to the new times and let the old textbooks die.
5. Mobile devices and apps for fitness and health
Athletes already use many apps to keep track of their weight and routines, and there are plenty of gadgets that send our heart rate, the kilometres we have covered and so on to our phone. The pocket personal trainer is a reality, and so is testing our blood sugar at home with a device that sends the data to a mobile app. There are even smart shirts that warn us if we are having a heart attack. Anything is possible.
6. Private clouds
We are talking, of course, about the cloud on the internet. Storing personal data in public storage behind a password may make some people think they are handing that information to the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and so on, and that is probably the case. So according to Juniper, there will be a boom in people hiring or choosing private storage services, and specialised cloud storage companies will appear offering anti-NSA levels of security.
7. A boom in 3D printers (even bigger)
3D printers have had a good year, but in 2014 they will do even better. There have already been moves in this industry, with some of the 3D printing giants buying smaller companies focused on 3D printers for consumers. The future lies in selling these printers to individuals. What is still missing is cheaper printing materials.
Goldman Sachs gave us 8 industries to invest in for the long term, including e-cigarettes, new cancer therapies, reinsurers and compressed natural gas.
Among the most profitable businesses of the future we would also have everything related to human longevity, beauty and health, alternative energy, hybrid vehicles and more organic food. See: Business trends for 2014–2015.
Further reading
Featured image: Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
