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Top Technology Trends for 2014

With less then a month left in 2013, we wanted to look back on the biggest trends over the past year and see how it compared with Mashable‘s list published a year ago.

In 2013 we saw a rise in Big Data, in 3D printing, the death of the Desktop computer, and Crowd funding but it looks like they were not “yet” right about Flexible Devices…

Earlier this month, Juniper Research has released its top 10 tech trends for 2014.

It looks like our cities are going to get smarter, our money is going digital, we’ll wear more “smart devices”, and we will be printing a lot more products from home.

Juniper’s top 10 technology trends for 2014

1) Cities will get smarter

Cities will get increasingly smart as sensors and cloud-enabled apps connect transportation, metering, health care, lighting, and environment data, and make it actionable.

2) Mobile money will continue to grow

Mobile money is enabling banking and financing systems in the developing world via mobile wallets, which should continue to grow both there and in developing countries. And as mobile grows in Africa and Asia, so will the provision of data, including data on better crop management, yield, and product tracking.

3) Wearable devices will proliferate

Google has Glass, and Samsung has a smartwatch, but Apple’s iWatch and many other smart wearable technologies are coming out soon. Juniper says 2014 will be a “watershed year” for wearables — but privacy will be an issue as cameras go everywhere.

4) iPads and tablets will grow in education

Tablet computing is increasingly attractive and affordable in education, Juniper says, and are likely soon to go mainstream in place of full desktop PCs or even laptops.

5) Mobile fitness devices will grow even bigger

In 2014,  mobile fitness devices will start to focus on the whole range of health and start to enter the tougher and more challenging health care industry.

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6) LTE subscribers will double and 4G LTE will start to roll out

LTE will hit the big-time, Juniper says, with global users doubling in 2014. And even faster networks will debut. See how T-Mobile and other U.S. carriers already have most of the USA covered with LTE, and how you can even get free LTE data.

7) Device context awareness will accelerate

More wearables, more devices, and more intelligence: Our devices are going to get smarter about where we are, what we’re doing, and what they can do to help us. Google Now is a good current example, Juniper says.

8) Ouya and other ‘microconsoles’ will disrupt home gaming

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One may have captured all the recent headlines about gaming systems, but Ouya is only 20 percent of the cost of the latest Xbox. As such it — and other cheap interlopers like the GameStick — pose a threat at the low end of the market, while other computer-based gaming systems pose a threat at the high end.

9) Personal clouds will explode

The public cloud is the NSA’s playground, some might think. So they’re turning to private cloud solutions and network-attached storage devices, right in the home.

10) 3D printer sales will jump

3D printers were hot in 2013, but they’ll increase significantly over the next 12 months, Juniper says, as HP, Samsung, and Microsoft join the party.

Most of Juniper’s predictions make a lot of sense, and you can see the budding trends right now. But only time will tell. Who knows perhaps some unknown future technology will emerge and take the lead pushing these great innovative ideas into new realms of creativity!
 

What do you think will be the top technology trend in 2014?