I know it’s been a while, but here is my first post of 2014!
Lots has certainly happened in the past two months, so I’m going to try and
recap the things that are going to be the most interesting to watch in the
coming year.
-Shortly after the release of Windows 8.1, Microsoft
revealed that they are working on Windows 9. Windows 8 has been widely criticized,
and consumers are very reluctant to try it, even though they don’t have much
choice (if you really have your heart set on Windows 7, HP is selling some new
PCs off their website preloaded with Windows 7). I personally think Windows 8
is fine, and that it has some really neat features, especially on a touch
device. I think if you’re going to get a Windows 8 device, it has to have a
touch screen. Anyway, after all this criticism, Microsoft hopes that Windows 9
will be to Windows 8, what Windows 7 was to Vista. They’re going to have some
serious competition in the coming year, so it’s going to be interesting to see
how they respond.
-Another company that didn’t have a great 2013 is Nintendo.
The WiiU has been failing, with Nintendo posting financial losses for the first
9 months of 2013, and dropping its forecast for 2014 from 9 million units to
2.3 million units. That’s a significant difference, although considering they
only sold 2.4 million units from April to December, it’s much more realistic. Nintendo
also announced that their president will be taking a 50% pay cut, with cuts to
the other members of the board as well. It’s gotten so serious, that everyone
has started speculating on what Nintendo should do to be successful again. One
of the most tossed around ideas is that they should release mobile versions of
their popular series (Zelda, Pokemon, Super Mario, etc.) due to the popularity
of these devices. I doubt Nintendo would relinquish control of these series,
but things may get desperate.
- Apple has finally realized that the U.S. market is
saturated with their products, and that it’s time to look elsewhere. In December,
they announced a deal with China Mobile to sell the iPhone 5 and 5C in China,
giving them access to another billion or so people. According to some sources,
they aren’t doing quite as well as they had hoped, but we’ll have to wait until
the March quarterly announcement to find out. They’ve also started selling the
iPhone 4 in India. An interesting reversal of this, is that recently Chinese
mobile phone makers have attempted to launch phones in the U.S. but are facing
much more resistance. Apparently Americans are much more reluctant to buy Chinese
products (ironic, considering almost everything is made in China), stalling the
attempts of companies like Huawei and ZTE to enter the market.
- The last big one I’ll mention is the fact that there are
already rumours and talk of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 6. I
think this is pretty crazy considering the S4 came out in late April 2013, the iPhone 5S and 5C came out in September 2013, and the
smartphone market is incredibly saturated. At this point, it is unlikely that
either company can design something that is so new and mind blowing that it
convinces users to upgrade sooner. For the S5, rumours are flying about an all
metal body, a potentially curved screen, a supercharged battery, a fingerprint/retina
scanner (following Apple), etc. The last one I find interesting because I wonder
if anyone has done any research to determine if people actually use this/find
it useful/identify it as a differentiating feature when buying a phone; or if
Samsung is doing it because Apple did. The iPhone 6 is rumoured to be coming in
at least 2 sizes; the standard 4.7” and potentially either a 5.3” or some sort
of phablet device at 6”. This means Apple has finally listened to its
customers! Other than that, it’s said to maybe focus on wireless charging and
eye tracking movements (following Samsung). The S5 is thought to be released
around February 2014, and the iPhone 6 anywhere between June and September
2014.
That’s the majority of the upcoming things to watch for. A quick
mention to: Google who bought Nest, a company that makes smart home devices (fire
alarms, thermostats, etc.), for $3.2 billion, and sent everyone into a panic
about Google entering our homes and controlling all our information; and
Blackberry who released version 10.2.1 of its operating system yesterday, which
apparently is actually pretty good, and caused stock to increase 3%. 
