2013: Primed for Innovation

So we’ve survived the Mayan Apocalypse, weathered the holidays and right about now that New Years hangover should be subsiding.   No?  Well, if your brain can stand the bright glare of the monitor for a few more minutes, check out some of these modern insights into 2013 that may help take your mind off…well…your mind.  Onto the newest innovations that are set to explode in 2013 (sorry for the loud imagery).

1. 3D Printing.  Bond.  James Bond.  3D Printing has already made its way onto the big screen and it has no intentions of stopping there.  In the new Bond movie Skyfall for instance, a 3D printer was used to replicate Bond’s infamous Aston Martin during explosive special effects scenes.  Makers agreed it was a lot more innovative and a tad less expensive than blowing up a few $275,000 Aston Martin DBS’s for cinematic purposes.  With 3D printers becoming more reasonably priced, expect this trend to start taking off in the professional environment in 2013.

2. OLED: A New Resolution.  The newest innovation in high def TV has not only arrived; it got excited, pounded on the door and then busted through like Cosmo Kramer in a Seinfeld episode.  Expect thinner, lighter and higher resolution TV’s to emerge in 2013.  OLED has already been experimented on a handful of tablets and smart phones but is making its TV debut (see what I did there) this year.  LG’s new 55” WRGB OLED TV weighs 16.5 pounds and is no thicker than a pencil.  They have already started taking pre-orders for the $10,000 product in South Korea and will begin shipping next month.

3. Reign of the Tablet.  Sounds like the name of a movie that would crash horribly at the box office.  However, the only thing we see crashing anytime soon are laptop sales.  Bold prediction alert: tablets will replace laptops over the next 10 years.  With increased education and implementation of cloud technology among consumers, look for slim and sleek tablets to start taking the place of traditional bulky laptops.  The size, computing capability, effectiveness and overall convenience of newer generation tablets has swept through the technology industry and looks to be the way of the future for business and leisure.

4. Mobile Payments:  Put in my tab-let.  Watch as mobile devices gradually begin to crop up in place of wallets and money clips in 2013.  As new mobile payment apps become more readily available, this trend is poised to take off in the New Year.  Imagine the convenience of online shopping coupled with no shipping periods and immediate enjoyment of purchases.  Now you can use mobile payment apps to complete monetary exchanges at physical store locations like coffee shops and movie theatres without even pulling out your wallet.  Square, the San Francisco creator of one of these apps, has come close to replicating the effortless online buying experience in the brick-and-mortar world.

I can only hope that this arsenal of knowledge is at least a little helpful to you moving forward in 2013.  Now, pop some Advil, grab some coffee (by the way, you can purchase both with your new mobile payment app now) and get rid of that 2012 headache- it’s a new year!