10 tech trends to watch for in 2013

Unfortunately for them, they face stiff competition from streaming-enabled smartphones and tablets, many of which are perfectly good games devices, and it's just a matter of time before Apple TV gets Angry Birds.

Could 2013 see the last generation of dedicated games consoles?

8. Firms that don't make hardware making hardware

In 2012 we saw the Nexus 7, 4 and 10, Amazon's Kindle Fires, Barnes & Noble's Nooks and Microsoft's Surface, and the trend will continue in 2013: Amazon is reportedly working on a smartphone and Facebook might be; Microsoft plans to make more Surfaces next year and possibly a phone too; and more Kindle Fires and Nooks are clearly coming too.

10 tech trends to watch for in 2013

Tech firms increasingly want to sell you hardware, software and services together

2013 will be all about the ecosystems, not just the hardware: firms will increasingly want to sell you everything from soup to nuts, and if that means getting into the hardware business then so be it.

9. Gadgets made in the USA

Google's ill-fated Nexus Q was US-made, and some of Apple's latest iMacs are assembled in the US instead of China. We don't mean the build-to-order ones, either.

This could be a trend: firms such as GM and GE are 'insourcing', going back to hiring people in the US instead of subcontracting to overseas suppliers.

10 tech trends to watch for in 2013

PC assembly usually happens in Asia. Could it be returning to the USA?

For many firms, outsourcing's benefits have disappeared amid record oil price rises (which massively increases shipping costs), rising Asian wages, increased Western productivity and lower energy bills due to the current natural gas boom.

According to The Atlantic, when GE insourced the manufacturing of expensive water heaters, it found that it could make them faster, to a higher standard and for less money than by outsourcing the work.

10. Everything connected to everything else

It's all coming together: as basic networking tech gets smaller and cheaper it becomes more widespread, and before you know it you've got everything from fitness trackers to thermostats, door locks and lightbulbs, connecting to a router or talking to your smartphone.

10 tech trends to watch for in 2013

Philips' Hue: controlling lightbulbs with your smartphone? There's an app for that

From cars to coffee machines, if it's possible to control it with an app, someone's going to find a way to do it.

Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall (Twitter) has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR.