For the last five years TrendsSpotting trends research company has published prediction reports covering trends in tech, mobile and social media, suggested by leading technology and business experts.

TrendsSpotting’s Influencers Prediction Reports 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 are read by thousands of readers and are used by leading companies to plan their future (viewership at Slideshare/TrendsSpotting).

As TrendsSpotting is involved in re-placing the role of women in the digital world (see us at Microsoft’s Women Think Next and WIFT), we have decided that this year we will dedicate this unique stage to the trends predicted by leading digital women.

Trends Covered in this report: Clouds, Mobile, E-commerce, Devices, Internet of Things, Apps, Games, Social Media and Women in tech.

You have probably noticed that among the many predictions that digital experts suggest for 2012 – only few women voices are heard.

We hope that this report will encourage women to take part in shaping the future of technology.

Wishing you a great 2012,

The TrendsSpotting team.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

In the past year, products using mobile devices to monitor health conditions are becoming more popular with the first ones now getting accepted by the Food and Drug Administration.

Among health care apps entering the market are blood pressure monitoring cuffs, CT-scan viewers, and pocket ultrasound machines. The market is still at its first steps but rapid growth is expected: according to mobile market consultancy research2guidance, by 2015 30 percent of the world’s smartphone users will be using mobile health products, up from 5 percent today.

The big promise for consumers are accessibility and price: Mobisante’s ultrasound mobile imaging device, for example, costs $7,495. Compare that to the $100,000  price of a leading ultrasound machine! Images are still far to be at the same quality, but we can surely understand the potential presented by mobile health startups and their moves into the 273 billion dollar market of medical devices.

In August 2011 Pew Internet Research found that 29% of people who download apps to their cell phones or tablet computers have downloaded a health app (see PDF) to “help them track or manage their health”. Looking at the overall share of adult cell phone owners who have downloaded an app to their phone (currently  -38%) we can learn that phone users who are engaging with apps find health related solutions as one of their top interests.

This can certainly be the starting point for health related data consumption, later to be connected in a larger context of “the internet of things”.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Based on the concept of “The Internet of Things” TrendsSpotting has developed  a working model for NPD.  ”The ANA Model” was developed  and implemented while working with tech companies, and allows us to predict future products and services.

The “ANA Model” identifies the process where data is collected from reported “Actions”, then delivered to predefined monitor systems or professionals by “Notifications”. The outcomes can “Alert” people through a visualized system.

Few daily activities are presented to reflect the process.

The ANA model can not only predict potential products and services (shopping, health, transportation, advertising etc) but can suggest new professions to rise.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

It has been shown that the human capacity has still important advantages over computers.
Scientists have learned to use crowd sourcing tools to improve their research. To achieve cooperation, they present models of the problems in a game like display and challenge the partipants to find solutions.

Scientists in Carnegie Mellon University (look up Luis von Ahn) were the first to use human brains to help them solve problems associated with searching for images on the web (computers are not very good at distinguishing images from each other using visual cues). This lead to the development of the ESP Game (to determine objects) and Peekaboom (word association games). They were the first to demonstrate how humans, as they play, can solve problems that computers can’t yet solve. (Google bought a licence to create its own version of the game in 2006 in order to return better search results for its online images).

Universities and academic institutions as well as private companies (look up Mental Matrix by iAppFusion) are now using crowdourcing games to enrich their discoveries. Interestingly, most of the crowd sourcing games are contributing to the study of enzyms and microorganisms:

A. Foldit was founded by the University of Washington Center for Game Science in collaboration with the Baker lab.
In the last decade, scientists repeatedly failed to find a solution to the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus.
The scientists have decided to collect a group of gamers and challenged them to produce an accurate model of the enzyme: users are tasked with folding known proteins and are scored on how well they manage to accomplish this task while taking into consideration the physical properties of the molecule. In less then ten days, the gamers came up with the desired solution.

B. EteRNA is an online game which resembles Tetris or Dr. Mario was developed by Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University researchers to uncover principles for designing molecules of RNA, which biologists believe may be the key regulator for all cellular activity.

C. The Biotic Games project (Stanford University) enables players to interact directly with microorganisms. The game’s “hardware” is a simple console which is hooked up to a lab slide. When players push buttons on the console the microorganisms on the slide react. These reactions are displayed onscreen in real-time via a microscopic camera.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Cognitive scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have reported that according to their recent studies simulating social networks, 10 percent is the critical mass for spreading ideas to the mass. If that proportion of the population emphatically embraces an idea, then there is a good chance for a mass follow.

“When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas,” said researcher Boleslaw Szymanski, director of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”

The tipping point (see gladwell, 2000) or the ‘critical mass’ in innovation research refers to the point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation’s further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining (Anghern 2005).

Looking back few decades at consumer technologies, critical mass was considered to occur with about 15 percent of users.

With the evolution of social networks as a vehicle to spread ideas (Facebook itself has definitely crossed critical mass) – we do expect that the ratio will be smaller.

The notion of critical mass is becoming more interesting when political ideas (Egypt is a great example) addressed by social network users leverage the network effect (immediate response+ large scale) and spread beliefs and calls for action.

Can critical mass get lower? I believe so! Once people get an illusionary image of the mass (and social networks interactions can generate such effect)- they will address it accordingly.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Healthcare technology is one of the most developing markets ought to change our life in the coming years. With a new focus on consumers, remote systems can manage instant alerts and direct communication with health care providers. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute, the annual consumer market for remote/mobile monitoring devices and services to be $7.7 billion to $43 billion.

Luckily, physicians are embracing new technologies and are heavy tech users themselves: when we explore the “internet of things”, we find this specific target group to be most cooperative with technology innovations.

Here are some research indications we’ve gathered to support this claim:

1. Physicians are smartphones lovers – in 2010 72% have already used smartphones (compare that to 37% of mobile users in the US that own a smart phone today). At that time, 20% of US physicians were planning to buy an iPad, even before its launch (Epocrates survey 2010).

According to Spyglass Consulting Group, 94 percent of physicians are using everyday smartphones and consulting apps like Epocrates or Johnson and Johnson’s BlackBag while on-the-job.

2. At the point of care

• 40%  use a digital device.

• More than two in five physicians go online during patient consultations, with the majority of this time being spent on a handheld device.

• Most popular content consumed:  drug reference databases, online journals, disease associations, and support groups for patients.

3. Internet behavior:

Almost all physicians  are online (99%). The average physician spends about 8 hours online each week for professional purposes (Manhattan Research 2010).

4. Social media engagement:

Manhattan Research 2010 shows that:

• two-thirds of doctors are using social media for professional purposes
• Nearly half of physicians say they are influenced by user-generated content.
• Physicians prefer open forums (e.g., blog) over a physician-only online community!

According to another research conducted by Kantar Media (Februrary 2011), 37% of U.S.-based physicians are using online social networks for professional purposes, and log on to such sites an average of nearly 230 times per year. Furthermore  – 41% of physicians who access social networks for professional purposes are active on two or more networks.

4. Future innovations: using technology to monitor patients health (PricewaterhouseCoopers research, September 2010)

• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of physicians are using personal devices for mobile health solutions that aren’t connected to their practice.
• Of those physicians who are using mobile devices in their practice, 56 percent said the devices expedite decision making and nearly 40 percent said the use of mobile devices decreases time spent on administration.
• 57% of physicians are ready to use remote devices to monitor the patients outside of the hospital (and they want it filtered by relevancy).

According to TrendsSpotting’s research analysis, here are the major challenges:

1. Medical data should be transformed by mobile devices (one of the major obstacles)

2. Filtered information and accuracy: Physicians should receive only relevant alerts and are not to be overloaded with data, while consumers should trust the accuracy of these systems in order to pay for their benefits.

2. Time saving and friendly applications

3. Medical data should be fully electronic (as for today – only half of physicians surveyed currently access electronic medical records while visiting and treating their patients).

4. Social alerts – immediate communication with those who are near (geo-location) should be integrated with real time medical information!

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Following TrendsSpotting’s research work  on youths media behavior (traditional and new media) in 16 countries, we bring you some of the insights we’ve collected on international marketing in higher education together with some relevant case studies.

TrendsSpotting is working with leading Universities on social media strategy designed to capture youths in Asia, Europe and the US.

You are welcome to contact us for research reports on youths in the following countries:

Asia: India, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore.

Europe: UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Greece.

Central America: Mexico

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Enchantment, The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, is Guy Kawasaki’s tenth book.

Coming from the one who is practicing enchantment with any move he makes (from Apple’s early days marketing, through best selling books, Garage Technology Ventures, and the popular online directory – Alltop) we should all listen carefully to his personal insights and the experiences he has collected.
The book helps you exercise the one thing needed to succeed – making those you aim to influence – believe in you.
Guy is not only reviewing different psychological mechanisms that are necessary in any persuasive process, he gives you a set of practical tools (personal, social and technological ones) with vivid examples, in an easy to digest, easy to implement layout.

Personal note: I was fortunate to take part as a contributing reviewer of this handy and practical book. I found myself taking it with me while preparing to workshops and business meetings.

Enchantment is available starting today on Amazon.com, and in bookstores everywhere.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

We have just released 2011 Tech Predictions Report featuring the predictions of ReadWriteWeb, GigaOm, Forrester, IBM and other leading experts.

We were closely following emerging trends in the following fields of interest:“The internet of things”, Apps marketplace, games platforms, tablets, business analytic,  video TV, and of course – clouds computing.

TrendsSpotting 4th annual digital prediction series is featuring the predictions of digital and marketing experts on the big changes awaiting us in the coming year.
Looking at 2010 and observing the trends we’ve seen that year – we aim at figuring out what will be new in 2011.
THE NEW NEXT initiative is focused not in what will happen in 2011 (as most predictions you find) but rather on the new trends emerging out of what we have seen earlier.

Look for TrendsSpotting’s prediction model (last slide) to conclude all we learned on consumers, technologies, strategies  and industries for the coming year in technology.

More on 2011 Predictions:

The New Next 2011 Social Media Predictions

The New Next 2011 Mobile Predictions

Enjoy,

The TrendsSpotting team.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

We have just released the 2011 Mobile Predictions Report featuring the predictions of ReadWriteWeb, GigaOm, Juniper, IBM and other leading experts.

TrendsSpotting 4th annual digital prediction series is featuring the predictions of digital and marketing experts on the big changes awaiting us in the coming year.
Looking at 2010 and observing the trends we’ve seen that year – we aim at figuring out what will be new in 2011.
THE NEW NEXT initiative is focused not in what will happen in 2011 (as most predictions you find) but rather on the new trends emerging out of what we have seen earlier.

Look for TrendsSpotting’s prediction model (last slide) to conclude all we learned on consumers, technologies, strategies  and industries for the coming year in mobile.

More on 2011 Predictions: The New Next 2011 Social Media and Tech Predictions.

Enjoy,

The TrendsSpotting team.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post