> Our phones are becoming our remote controls for life.<p>I feel really freaking old for a 21 year old. I got an Iphone 3gs back in 2009 before going into college. I should have been the target market for most of the tech revolution, right? I only used the thing to watch youtube, read pdfs, browse websites (never write anything), and take really ugly photos and video. I rarely made calls with it and canceled text messages entirely in 3 months. The battery died this summer, and I just got a tracfone just so I can call my grandparents because almost all my vocal communication is done via skype, jabber, or mumble. Maybe most importantly? I not only never paid for an app, I downloaded a total of like 5 in 3 years.<p>I have a Transformer tablet though, which I still wouldn't call the center of my tech environment, I just use it to read articles, books, and watch video. I don't even do the picture taking with it because its a giant book and it is so obtuse to photograph with it. The high DPI screen makes reading wonderful on it though, which is the main reason I have it. I did get the Transformer + keyboard dock so I had the ability to write when needed.<p>I don't think I'll ever get a 4 - 6" smartphone again. Anywhere I go I'll just throw my tablet in a backpack and bring it with me if need be, or just carry it. You won't shrink the screen any more and I just prefer the 10" form factor.<p>I still carry about my dumb phone just because we still live in the stone ages of ubiqutious internet. I don't want to pay $50+ a month for data just to have internet on the go. I already pay way too much to run a DSL signal to my home router.<p>I dunno, I just feel like the smartphone market is saturated. Modern computers have a very finite limit of influence over the world since they can only impact it through vibrating air, itself, or through emitting electromagnetic radiation in various forms. And I already have all the audiovisual stimulation that I want already, so I won't be adding any more. An RSS feed of all my choice webnews and the front page of reddit and HN for laughs is all the digital media consumption I really need anymore.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the doom-and-gloomers have a very narrow view of that startup landscape, and only really see consumer companies.<p>The real trend of 2013, IMO, is that the consumer space is dead, as far as new startups are concerned. Supporting evidence is the "series A crunch", the reaction to the Facebook IPO, and Chris Dixon's "10 million is the new 1 million" article.<p>However, startups in other spaces, notably B2B and "enterprise" (the new sexy as of very recently, and my prediction for the number one trend of 2013) should be fine. If your startup makes money and has customers, you'll have no problem raising money (and less problems going it alone).<p>[Supporting evidence: basically my own (limited) experience from fundraising over the last few months]
Decent list of observations on startup landscape. If you are interested and haven't had an opportunity to read, Mary Meeker's Internet trends (<a href="http://kpcb.com/insights/2012-internet-trends" rel="nofollow">http://kpcb.com/insights/2012-internet-trends</a>) report provides a much more comprehensive view on the subject.
I didnt see 3D Printing on that list? Though the cost of home 3D printers probably wont drop to 500 or less, so maybe 3D printers isn't 2013 but 2014/2015?
It'll be interesting to see how our interaction with our phones will change once data transfer rates of 1GB/s are common. Sensors will play an increasingly important role, and who knows... probably many new innovations will be funded through the rising crowdfunding eco-system.
Two weeks ago we encountered a need for a hosted "launch rock style" landing page that would function like kickstarter, to fund and grow our customer base in the same fashion as lockitron. We built Tractio.co to solve the need for a crowd funding landing page without technical chops, and helping to foster the growth of companies and services that need help raising funds, and want full control. We are looking for beta testers still.<p>Trends be warned. The worst thing about a trend is that they create overpopulation of products/businesses in a small space, causing distraction and undue competition to serious businesses from "can do it for free and leave it" day hacks.
We shouldn't look to WSJ for insight on startups. The trends are already passed by the time they're aware of them, which is why the article feels like it's talking about 2012 instead of 2013.
I participated in this WSJ series and suggested you should simply ignore the trends.<p><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2012/12/20/ignore-trends-and-predictions/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2012/12/20/ignore-trends-a...</a>
So a big trend will be being able to order services via your phone?<p>Now instead of calling a phone number I download an app and do the same thing?<p>Not quite seeing the huge win here.