Anyhow, for 2014, the gurus of change see some themes.
Guilt-free status. They see a guilt spiral among people who think they should change their consumption, but don't. The biggest "guilt-free status" hits are cars that conserve. The status part means it has to be visible. Can you think of others?
Crowd-shaped will be big. People will pool their preferences--whether they want to or not or know it's being done or not. (I heard about an app that tells you what your friends are investing in so you can, too. That's not creepy.) Another example is juke boxes with a playlist shaped to the people who come to the bar. Uh--don't they have that now?
China will make us green. The Middle Kingdom apparently is now the epicenter of green goodness.Intelligent streetlights, recycling bottles in the subway, a store made from trash, smart windows that saves and generates energy--Chinese.
Mychiatry--love this one. These are products for the "quantified self" (beats me). Stress reduction, headphones detecting your relaxation level in a game, a headband to gauge mental focus, a dreams analyzer.
No data. This will be a trend in walking the line between customizing for people and becoming scary-intrusive. Eight-six percent of internet users have tried to mask their identity. Darn skippy!
These are just some. I like the part about watching the creepiness. I do not want to walk in a mall, even if I could walk long distances, and have ads "read" me and flash up something I would like.
It's bad enough that some random search for say, white shoelaces--follows me to every site for weeks. I got the shoelaces--go away!
