Thinking About Tech Trends in 2012

Christmas 2011 is a great time to think about tech trends in 2012 what with all the gadgets found under the tree. Around our house, the Amazon.com Kindle Fire was a highlight as highly functional and relatively affordable. The Kindle book reader on the Fire was almost as good as the dedicated Kindle device. Reflecting on the Kindle Fire, there are a number of promising tech trends in 2012:

• Continued growth of cloud computing – Large networks of on demand computing resources continue getting cheaper and more approachable. Amazon Web Services leads the way by constantly lowering prices, expanding services, and adding locations.
• Continued growth of mobile devies and apps – “There’s an app for that” has become so pervasive that I’m no longer amazed when someone shows me an awesome app I haven’t encountered yet. With the debate between native apps and HTML5 apps, I believe HTML5 will win out for most apps.
• Continued growth of big data usage and awareness – Big data is the idea of using distributed computing to analyze large amounts of data in a more efficient and cost effective manner than what was previously possible. As an example, imagine crawling the internet and processing large numbers of web pages to automatically find compelling event sales reps need to know about (see SalesLoft Sales Intelligence).
• Continued growth of specialized sharing and social networks – One of the main topics at Christmas Eve dinner was Pinterest, the popular online pinboard to share content, pictures, etc. Several gifts under the tree came from Etsy, the specialized marketplace and social network for homemade goods (yes, it’s more than just a marketplace). The number of specialized sharing and social networks with a critical mass keeps growing.

We’re only scratching the surface of how the internet and mobile devices are fundamentally changing our lives. It’s a great time to be a technologist and I’m excited for 2012.

What else? What are some other tech trends for 2012?