This [2014] has been a tumultuous year in technology; we have seen security breaches, iPhone 6, Google Glass, drones and the virtual reality of Oculus Rift. In 2015 we will see that mobile devices will continue to become the prevalent way for people to browse the Internet. Highly visited sites such as google.com provide the mobile experience by sensing that the request for a web page originates from a hand-held device, and more sites are going to follow suit. Already, over half of consumer time spent on the Internet is on mobile devices, and hence the prediction of great growth in the mobile web, and, in particular, in mobile shopping.
But mobile devices are not only becoming the window of choice to the Internet; they are in fact becoming the computing platform of choice. For example, the CIO at Hargrove Inc., a trade-show and event services company in Lanham, Maryland, is investing in mobile technologies that will make it easier to access floor plans and information from the trade-show floor. For this to be practical, the screen size of mobile devices has to increase, and indeed it already has. Take, for instance, the seven-inch MediaPad X1 by Huawei, a giant smartphone. Thus, another prediction is that the line between mobiles and tablets will become more blurred and we will have devices that qualify as both smartphones and tablets.
3-D printing will continue leaving the domain of academics and enthusiasts, and it will become more and more of a standard, bringing the manufacturing of small parts to the household. The next generation of at-home 3-D printers will use lasers, heat or liquid to bind powders into solid materials.