When every device, from smart TV’s to gaming devices to Photoshop image editing have special mobile features, you know it is a mainstay in our culture. Google Glass is making nearly every possible task mobile. It costs $1,500, is barely understood and looks bizarre. It still manages to sell for $4,000 on eBay, as well as invitation codes to even have a chance to buy the product sell for close to $500, reaffirms Guardian LV.
By 2020, Morgan Stanley predicts that mobile devices could easily top 10 billion units in sales. This is a device for every person in the world, and this is just over five years away.
Gadgets are shaping up to change the way we interact with the world and do business in 2014:
1. Surface 2 Tablet
The Surface 2 tablet has an identity issue, states ReadWrite, because it seems to have the hardware capabilities of a notebook, but the design of a tablet. It is hard to compare it to anything. Perhaps it is this very lack of comparison that will make Microsoft’s Surface Tablet 2 a major business entity in 2014. It has a built-in kickstand that can allow you to sit up like a notebook, or hide it for tablet-type use. The Type Cover 2 is a portable keyboard cover that is highly portable.
Microsoft expects the Surface 2 Tablet to enhance productivity, so expect a major marketing push in the small business sector, plus the immortal backing of the company through mobile business apps such as SkyDrive, Skype, Outlook and even Photoshop mobile.
2. Voice Command Assistants
The terms Google Now and Apple Siri may be silly terms with little grounding, but they are the answer to virtual command assistants that will become major entities in 2014. Natural language searches will steadily overtake keyword searches, Forbes reports. This will make searching faster, more responsive and even more personalized. The trend in 2014 will be pushing these features as staples in all mobile devices, and moving from individuals requesting data to it being passively offered.
3. The Smart TV Mobile Standard
Smart TV has been changing business for quite some time now. MultiChannel recalls that smart TV’s establish entertainment, web access, gaming and security in a single device. Sales at a major tech store in Santa Monica increased 300 percent for smart TV’s in 2013. The recent release of the Playstation 4 further embeds a multi-functional device through apps, web access, and cooperation with the current Smart TV set-up, confirms Complex.com.
But the purpose is to add business perks to these devices and step a bit away from strict entertainment. This includes enhanced communication. EnGadget details that new 2014 smart TV’s will work with Boku and Play Jam to allow mobile payments. For businesses, the Intuit mobile card processing platform has been a mainstay. Now payments can be processed through Smart TV’s for even greater accessibility.
4. Google Glass
Google has built an enthralling campaign around the Google Glass by limiting its usage to 10,000 for 2013 and offering it only to people they deem ‘explorers.’ The purpose is to gain feedback on their use and make it a major event, and to drum up interest in this alternative form of computing and communicating, states Forbes. But Forbes confirms that 2014 will see the first legitimate public release of Google Glass.
