Technology moves fast.
WEARABLE COMPUTERS
Computers increasingly crept from our pockets and desktops to our bodies this year. Samsung and Sony both released early attempts at computerised watches, while the popularity of fitness-tracking wristbands surged.
But wearables aren't yet mainstream, says Morris Miselowski, an analyst at Business Futurist. "By the end of next year everyone will be wearing them without thinking twice," he says.
The big driver will be Glass, Google's head-mounted computer. So far, it's been released only to a handful of selected "explorers". A mainstream launch is expected for 2014.
"Google Glass will be the thing that kickstarts it in the media and the popular conversation," Miselowski says.
WELLNESS
More and more people used technology to monitor their wellness, drawing on new wearable gadgets, such as the fitbit wristband, and apps which track diet and sleep.
There was a big "ramping up" of what Eric Openshaw, Deloitte's global technology leader, calls the "wellness model" - where people look to take control of their health before disease strikes.
That's opposed to the "health model" of the past, where people dealt with health problems when they had already materialised.
It's set to increase in 2014, Openshaw says. In the long-term, it will have big implications for life insurance and retirement plans.
SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS
Even after several years, analysts continue to point to smartphones and tablets as a blockbuster technology trend.
This year, devices got more powerful, with better cameras and sharper displays, while Apple introduced the first serious fingerprint scanner with the iPhone 5S.
Openshaw says growth will continue past 2014. He expects most tablets to feature eight-inch screens, and says consumer electronics companies will increasingly target affluent over-55s.
More than half of Australians will own a tablet by the end of next year, says Alvin Lee, a senior analyst at Telsyte.
Foad Fadaghi, also from Telsyte, says that by the end of 2014, more people will access the internet with smartphones than with traditional computers.
BIG DATA
Technology is collecting more information about us - from what we like to buy online to what time we get up in the morning.
This year Google introduced a feature that mines your calendar entries, emails, and other personal information to provide personalised real-time feedback. If there's traffic on your usual route to work, for example, it will tell you.
Miselowski expects the trend to intensify in 2014, with personal technology becoming more informed about our lives.
It'll lead to more "synthetic thinking", or computers doing our thinking for us.
3D PRINTING
Three-dimensional printing was much-hyped in 2013. Fears about blueprints for printable guns vied with optimism about medical breakthroughs and the technology's artistic potential.
3D printing has gone from being expensive and limited to cheap and flexible, says Suzana Ristevski from General Electric - and in 2014 it will expand in new directions.
"Future applications seem limitless," she says.
"3D printing is likely to disrupt every field it touches from scientific equipment and industrial technology to household goods and fashion."
But she says a number of challenges will arise as the technology enters the mainstream, particularly around intellectual property, trademarking and patents.
Share
