Former Windows Leader Steven Sinofsky Presents 10 Mega Trends In Tech For 2014

Sinofsky ticks off a big list of web-based startups making tools for the enterprise that he thinks will see big growth: "Asana, Quip, Paper, Mixpanel, Lucidchart, Haikudeck or others will see viral expansion kick-in. Established tools such as Evernote, Box, Dropbox, WhatsApp, and more with high active usage will see major increases in cross-organization work as they grow to become essential tools for whole organizations."

Enterprises will stop buying software to install in their own data centers and use the cloud. Not only that, they won't be worried about about sharing hardware in the cloud because they will get great benefits with that, particularly when it comes to sharing data among different companies.

"Email will increasingly be viewed as 'fax' and SMS will be used for 'official' communications and 'form letters' as person to person begins to use much richer and more expressive (fun) tools," says Sinofsky. He advises people to, "Skip email notifications, rely on SMS only when critical (security and verification), and assume heterogeneity for messaging choices. Expect to see more tools building in messaging capabilities with context scoped to the app."

Android and iOS are getting unique enough that one general app design for both platforms will no longer work. "Ultimately, developers will need to pick their lead platforms or have substantial code bases across platforms and face the challenge of keeping functionality in sync," says Sinofsky.

Application designs will not be one size fits all. Some apps that started on the phone will have to be tweaked for tablets, phablets, laptops, and hybrid computing devices.

"Mobile platforms will be part of nearly every purchase or transaction. Anything requiring reservations, tickets, physical resources, delivery, or scheduling will only win the hearts and minds of the new urban if available via mobile."

This is a big idea in the Valley. Why own a car if you can use someone else's part time? Why use your apartment all the time if you can rent it out sometimes to make some money on the side?

Right now they seem like goofy monster devices. Next year they make perfect sense as the device that bridges the gap between a tablet and smartphone.

We hope this one is right: "2014 will be a year in which any individual will see alternatives for unlimited cloud storage. Email, files, photos, applications, mobile backup and more will be embedded in the price of devices or services with additional capabilities beyond gigabytes".

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