The Rise of Mobile and Other 2014 Trends to Watch as Predicted by Google’s Eric Schmidt

Will mobile finally be ready to usurp computers for good in 2014? According to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, mobile has already won because everyone will eventually have a smartphone.

In a rare interview, Schmidt talked with Bloomberg TV about his outlook for 2014. “The trend has been mobile was winning; it’s now won,” Schmidt said. “There are now more tablets and phones being sold than personal computers. People are moving to this new architecture very fast.”

Besides the reign of mobile, what else can we expect to see in 2014?

Eric Schmidt’s 2014 Predictions

Schmidt also believes that big data has arrived, and that artificial machine intelligence will become a significant disruptor in new technology services across the globe.

Schmidt isn’t quite as sure how advances in genetics sciences are going to pan out, but he does believe that personal gene mapping “will yield discoveries in cancer treatment and diagnostics over the next year that are unfathomably important.”

trend schmidt missed

What else isn’t Schmidt sure about? “At Google, the biggest mistake I made was not anticipating the rise of the social networking phenomenon.” Perhaps this is why Google+, which was basically a carbon copy of Facebook released a few years too late, severely lags behind in user activity and engagement. Schmidt takes responsibility for this blunder and, going forward, vows not to lag behind in social media technology.

Interestingly in late 2011 Schmidt famously predicted that “by the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded,” according to The Verge. While that hasn’t yet come to fruition, the picture of the technology landscape may be clearer now. And if you look at Google’s recently deployed catalog of services, you know Google is betting big on mobile, analytics and wearable computing devices like Glass.

At the end of his interview Schmidt further highlighted the need for Google’s products and services, mentioning how proud he is of Google’s business model, which seems to do well regardless of the state of the economy.

Daniel Zeevi

By Daniel Zeevi

Daniel is a social network architect, web developer, infographic designer, writer, speaker and founder of DashBurst. Full-time futurist and part-time content curator, always on the hunt for disruptive new technology, creative art and web humor.