What are the next biggest things?

So this week has been glorious. I've had to do massive amounts of work therefore I didn't have a lot of time to make my post. The Title of the blog post implies that this is to be the be a Nexus/Android/Google blog, but you'd notice that my last post was more about the web itself and it only included the topic of Android and Google inside of it. This post will specifically speak about technology as a whole. Sure it will include a few Android devices, but the focus will be on the consumer devices as a whole. These are a few trends I've noticed in the last few weeks in the technology world. The trends suggest what the next big thing is.

The cell phone world will use technology from other parts of the tech industry

I have no idea why I didn't think of this before, but since I read the news article, In One Big Nudge, Google To Spend $500 Million To Market Moto X Phone - Report, I became consumed with the thought that Google was nudging the practice of bringing already established technologies from other parts of the tech world such as car like monitors, Kodak "clearpixel" cameras for low light photography and dual channel LTE for up to an average of +50 MB/s into the mobile tech industry. This could mean devices wont be entirely concerned with beefy processors, screen sizes(and pixel density), but more concerned with introducing new technologies to change the experience of phones. Nokia and Samsung have done similar things until now, each bringing something like NFC with Samsung (and all android), and new camera technologies(like 41 pixels for extreme digital zoom and image stabilizers) in Nokia devices. The Moto X might be the main drive to take the integration of foreign technology from other industries into the mobile industry.

Getting to the last 5 Billion while making the world better

This presentation gave me a good idea of how the time around 2020 will be for the 3rd world country with mobile technology. This failed to even mention any advancements to cooling, agriculture, metal extraction, medicine, 3-D Printing technology, or other revolutionary technologies that I haven't thought of. But generally speaking, the message is all pretty clear. Companies are investing into the final 5 billion people. Investing in emerging markets cost relatively little but usually have high gains after a while. Just think of how the banker J.P Morgan originally invested in the US's Electrical, Steel, Oil and Railroad systems and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Nokia's introduction of the Asha 501 devices, and how Google is expanding 3g like wireless service to almost the entire world via Project Loon are key indicators that they are indeed taking emerging markets seriously.

3-D Printing Is Not a Fab, it's One of the Main Biggest Things

I want to make everything clear. 3D printing is far from a Fab, it's gonna go mainstream. You can really tell because Organizations like GE and NASA are investing into it, and NASA especially doesn't waste money. I have a story of my own to prove how inefficient our current process is. About a year ago I entered the racing car development club in my college for the hell of it. No, I'm not some dude who loves cars, I don't fantasize about have a Mercadez when I grow-up, I want a car that will run on something like 10000000 miles a gallon -I have my dreams. As I said, I joined, but only because I was bored, and I quit after the first week. It was all cool designing the car, but the process for making all of it's parts was unbearable, and the people there were extremely rude and antisocial, which I thought was annoying. People's personalities aside, let me tell you how the parts were made in a step-by-step format:

1. Find out what piece we have to make.
2. Look at all the measurements
3. Figure out what machines to use
4. Figure out the specifications for creating the piece
5. Shave the piece to make it look as smooth as required for the car(By hand)
6. Drink a quarter gallon of water to prepare for one long ride
7. Get a spot at the machine you need
8. Get the pieces necessary for the machine
9. Begin taking an extreme number of measurements so you can make a precise first cut/drill/saw
1. If You mess up, start from step one again and skip step 6 if an hour hasn't already gone by
10. Use measurements from the sheet and check for accuracy continuously and keep going to until you can go no more.
1. Done? Probably took 3 hours of your life for that one piece, if you have special machinery for this the process took around 1.5 hours.
1. If you messed up, start from square one again. Make sure you enjoy step 6 or add an extra step for flirting, because if you don't you're gonna have one hellish night.

The process for mass production is not too different either. It goes a lot like this:

1. Engineers look at the design
2. They determine the dimensions of the parts
3. Create a machine for each hole, curve from a specific block (Takes forever to design)
4. Create special machines for special processes, like for moles and special sprays (Also taking forever)
5. Generate massive amounts of waist from excessive drilling and shiming of metals and heat to cool things. (Not very effective)

I feel like I'm missing little details too, which is a shame. Basically I could call the club "Build one part for 2 or more hours" club, because that's what we were doing. Designing the car took only two weeks, but building it like this took about 29 weeks. Even though the Mechie kids building the car had massive amounts of pride in the car, I thought that with Future Technology, 3-D Printing, the club could have had 6-7 cars up and moving in the time it took for 1. My point is, 3-D printing technology will make this type of situation almost disappear. Just imagine having one machine do all the work for you  in any material by creating the part in a CAD program then just sending it in. Car and plane manufacturing could be speed up by 10 to 25 times the norm, the manufacturing price would be reduced for most items including some micro-electronic parts, and people could make anything mechanical in their garage in their backyards.

They say in the NASA article that 3-D printing cut it's production cost by 70% and shaved off months from the time used. Just imagine what could happen in cars, boats, planes, electronic (and microelectronic) parts, computing device shells(laptops, cell phones etc) and more. This technology can go widespread fast, and will mean everything will be cheaper for everybody in the world. Because everything will be so much cheaper for the general population, printing technologies go hand and hand with targeting the Final 5 Billion, which is a section from earlier in the article.

Wearable technology

Wearable technology goes completely with my previous article, which I hope explains well on why wearable technologies are so important, even if Google Glass is not the most successful thing out there. They will connect with the beginning of the Web 4.0, which should let nerds rejoice.

Quantum Computing, That's right it's coming

Quantum Computing is insane. I'm not just gonna let you take my word for it, take this evidence. Quantum computing in the realm of research will allow humans to discover things that we never would have in no time flat. Generally speaking Quantum computing devices will replace Supercomputers by allowing you to do insanely complicated analysis that would take current supercomputers thousands of years to complete in seconds. Imagine the results: People could become Superheroes by figuring out
which genes will give people powers, we could design warp drives in a short period of time to get us from one Galaxy/Nebula to another in mere seconds, learn many of the properties of the universe faster than before, control gravity to prevent(or create) black holes, find medicines that could cure cancer, create AI that would be more human and intelligent than us, the list is infinite.

What These Technologies Mean

These technologies are just the tip of the iceberg, but they do mean a whole lot. Here's what these technologies mean.

To The Consumer

Prepare to have insane products from all over. Cars may only cost $100 if they're not flying by then, plane rides will only cost $10 with the 600 person plane only costing up to $1m for production, smartphones could be $3 dollars, and food prices can be reduced significantly with just 3-D printing alone. Quantum technologies could increase out scientific discovery by up to 1,000,000 times the normal and bring about new AI systems. Meaning we could live into the thousands (would be boring after a while) and increase our overall intelligence beyond what we've ever had. The standard of living will be like our own or better in emerging nations. Companies that invest in the last 5 billion will become ever wealthier, and that wouldn't hurt you one bit. You could also see 3-4 processor cellphones(like the 3 processor Moto X: Sensor processor, main CPU, GPU) sooner than you think.

To the Investor

The average investor will be very busy for the next 5-10 years. They'll need to find the next big companies that will represent the next big things. Forget app developer fabs, people representing these technologies are the ways to go. I plan on joining the investment gang in about 3-4 years after I get out of college, these are the first things I'm going for. If you are an investor, you can make tons of money.