By Prashant Hari

Trend= A general direction in which something is changing

or developing

• The proliferation of the screen continues at an exponential rate from 2013 onwards including super sizes smart screens, see-thru smart screens, and very very tiny smart screens. Price catch-up for consumers continues.

• Screens of all sizes continue to grow for multiple uses (social networking, gaming, video and photo taking as well as viewing, location and GPS)

• Screens get slimmer in size and much better clarity. Right from Samsungs new OLED screen released at CES 2013, to a wide range of bendy, curvy and flexi screens. Screens as thin as paper (PaperTab, Samsung) continue to grow.

• Eventually, are we heading towards a holographic projection as a screen?

• Emotion sensing will continue to embed itself into new devices. We may start to see things like our Smartphone telling us our “mood” based on how fast we type a Tweet or Email e.g “that tweet you wrote was written at an accelerated pace, you Mr. Hari are angry”

• Body gestures instead of touchscreen. We may see that touching “screens” constantly isn’t most hygenic, and the ability to control devices without physically touching them is starting to appear on more and more devices. This may carry out across multiple devices and screens.

• Voice activation for smart “screen” functions continues to grow with smarter algorhithims and sees more success.

• With talk around Googles GLASS project gaining traction last

year with early videos, as well as more and more consumer

electronics heading into this space, Wearable Technology is

another huge potential growth area.

• Ability to project directly to the eye with all Social Networking,

GPS, cards/passes all synchronized into one device.

• A device/technology which give us everything that the current

“Smartphone” does but not in a phone format may emerge &

catch on mainstream depending on the price and functionality.

• A picture can say a 1000 words. Pinterest is currently the

fastest growing Social Network in the US. Taking photos via

Smartphones and instantly uploading them onto the net

continues to grow.

• Marketers will realize the power of Image Driven Content

Marketing and embrace it as a serious strategy much like

YouTube, Facebook and Google in early days.

• The ability to make more professional, more pretty, more sexy,

more glamorous and more funky photos continues to grow driven

by demand from younger consumers. MORE INSTANT!

• Social+Location+Mobile continues to grow further. More

smaller, creative and experimental strategies will continue to

trialled further in 2013.

• Retail and Brick & Mortar stores start experimenting more with

SoLoMo as a serious strategy.

• Integration of other Social trends like Images also included.

Integration, integration, integration!

• SoLoMo starts being included into a wider Social Media

strategy and being more immersed with offline and print

methods i.e HYBRID!!!!

• Online Piracy will continue to come to the front line as a serious

issue further in 2013. More coherent models (and discussions

around these) for the distribution of Movies, Books, Music will

take a more serious turn.

• We’ll realize more that we have a more relaxed attitude

overall towards “privacy” than we realized and sharing is very

much a second nature “human” function.

• As technology continues to move faster, we’ll start holding onto

more things from the past closer, and we will also see older things

being used in newer ways more for novelty purposes to

complement it’s digital counterpart rather than replace.

• We’ll see the automotive industry work closely alongside technology and internet companies to integrate and engage viewers further.

• We’ll start seeing new uses of Social Media once integrated into automotives (including new risks) e.g voice controlled texting, car performance etc). Also auto-checkin to locations may grow.

• We may start to see use of an “alternative” screen for car passengers as an alternative form of engagement.

• Smart programming within cars will see new innovations being trialled and tested.

• MORE DATA!

• With multiple screens of multiple sizes, the ability to control

these screens will be a crucial factor and question(?)

• Multiple remote controls for multiple devices isn’t desirable.

• Whether the Smartphone becomes a “universal” remote control

for all devices, or it takes some other route, the “Remote

Control” question is one that consumer electronics will continue to

question and raise in 2013.

• The third billiionth finally arrives on the internet and we’ll start

to see the implications of this across the entire internet.

• The need for cheaper technological solutions for food, water,

clothing and education will be the crucial question for this

demographic.

• More experimenting…

???

• Email: prazhari@socialwizz.com or showwizz@ymail.com

• Tweet me: @prazhari or @showwizz

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