Innovation Trends

It takes a while for technology innovation to start appearing in business. Awareness of  innovation starts with a few fringe users/early adopters. It then starts growing and then moving main stream. The stock market analysts start looking at these innovations when they start showing up in revenue streams.

So following Weak Signals and Micro Trends is a great way to participate. How do you validate these trends? Look for supporting trends (in hiring from large companies, information propagation first through social media and then through print media).

Nice to see that Innovation is back and getting some attention.

Mary Meeker: Innovation is Back http://bit.ly/bFl5Pu #techtrends #innovationtrends

A few thoughts about these Innovation trends.

  1. Will smart phones become the norm for power users and businesses?
  2. Search is the largest mobile application and the king is now Google. We may see others jumping into this space. There is an interesting twist. During iPhone 4.0 launch, while the default search engine was Google, the press demos were all in Bing. Is Microsoft entering the search space  through mobile? Will Apple have their own search?
  3. Will HTML5 based Web applications take market share from App Stores? What are the new tools and opportunities in this space for smaller developers?
  4. Will most of the Mobile Apps require Cloud Support? Who will benefit if this becomes a big trend?
  5. What kind of innovations are happening in Mobile Apps for Enterprise? When will this become a mainstream market?
  6. If you are a product company, would you start dipping your toes in this space? What will be the business models? Can you start generating revenues now?