We here at the fan-to-pro group have a mailing list we discuss things on, including tweets, news, etc. This came partially from my discussion on what’s next for Apple.
And namely, I’m not entirely sure – because it’s hard to know where anything goes next.
Look, Apple was successful. They defined markets and products. They defined designs. They’re being imitated. They’ve done well – but as we all know, there’s always the question of “what’s next” which is kind of hard when you’ve come as far as they have.
Except I think the question applies to a lot of technology companies.
Where does anyone go from here?
- The norm is portable phones that are small computers.
- The norm is tablets that are flat slates of computing power.
- The norm is slick and powerful laptops.
- The norm is portable music, portable books, portable video – portable everything.
So we’ve all got a lot of powerful stuff that does all sorts of things out of SF films and technophilic fantasies. Hell, I’ll say we’re further along technically than I’d ever dreamed 10 years ago. The problem is I’m not sure what’s next for any company.
Television? Gaming consoles? Being subsumed into other devices. Social media is established. Until we start implanting things it seems we’ve hit a great pinnacle of This Stuff Is Awesome.
So what’s next for Apple? Hell, what’s next for any technology company?
For those of us who can figure it out it’s a fantastic career advantage, or a chance to even found a business. It’s just we won’t always know when we’re right until it’s too late . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.