Welcome to the New Year! Last week we looked back on the top mobiles of 2013 and decided it had been a pretty good year for our industry. So will 2014 be able to top it? We’re not so sure just yet but we should have a pretty good idea by the end of CES in a week’s time. That’s where all the big companies are going to be making all their big announcements, so stay tuned to What Mobile for the latest news.
But until then, we’ve come up with three predictions for 2014. There’s a bit on phones, a bit on business, and a bit on new tech (!). Let’s hope that the next 365 days prove to be as interesting as the last.
[alert type=alert-blue]Bye bye BlackBerry?[/alert]
A fair few companies at the moment are in tough spots when it comes to money. HTC had a difficult 2013, reporting its first quarterly loss. But none are more troubled than BlackBerry, which went through quite a saga in the back half of the year.
In short, amidst failing handsets and outdated designs, the company put itself up for sale. For a while it seemed like investors at Fairfax Financial would front the cash to buy the company, but we heard towards the end of the year that that wouldn’t be happening. Then there was the report of some $4.4 billion lost in the company’s Q3.
You can see why we might say that BlackBerry might not be here this time next year. The company has boasted enormous amounts of cash will keep them afloat for now, but confusing messages about if it’s to stay in the consumer market or limit itself to business have only left us scratching our heads. It’s certainly going to have to pull some tricks out of its hat to be able to survive throughout the next year.
[alert type=alert-blue]The Year of the Wearable[/alert]
2013 has not been kind to the smartwatch. Mainstream efforts like the Sony smartwatch have fallen flat while Samsung’s Galaxy Gear might just be the worst-received product the company has seen in some time. It comes down to the sluggish OS that’s far more limited than most had hoped for.
But our guess is that all changes in 2014. Rumours about a possible iWatch from Apple come about every other day. If it works out and we see the new device revealed in an Apple conference later in the year, then our guess would be that the iWatch will be the holiday item next Christmas (yes we’re thinking that far ahead).
And then the Apple effect will kick in. Suddenly everyone will have its own contender in the field, and it wouldn’t surprise us at all if Samsung comes back strong with an updated Galaxy Gear, and the likes of HTC has already said that it’s looking into its own gadget. This time next year we could all be wearing the hottest items on our wrists.
[alert type=alert-blue]Amazon becomes a prime contender[/alert]
It wasn’t too long ago that Google muscled its way into the market with the impressive Nexus line up of tablets and phones. Thanks to clever pricing and smart partnerships, the company is now a mainstay in the industry. If we were to suggest one other outfit that could pull this off, it would undoubtedly be Amazon.
Maybe that’s a little unfair, as the company’s increasingly tablet-like Kindle series is already hugely popular. But the retailer is yet to put out its very own phone, and we’re thinking that 2014 is the time to do it. We’ve heard whispers that HTC is developing the handset, which based on the One series, is a pretty great move from Amazon.
Then there are exciting little tidbits of info like eye-tracking that could open up new ways to interact with our devices. If they can match Google on pricing them Amazon could soon be a major player in our industry.
