Forward Thinking

Life in a Cloud
Mobility, portability, and transience. Cloud computing will be the most talked-about trend in tech for 2012. People will share more than ever, playing music and accessing their information from anywhere, providing a seamless digital experience from start to finish. The biggest player in this cloudy business? Mobile, the perfect device because of its extreme portability and ability to access our emails, notes, social networks, and favourite music and shopping sites from one place. With each cloud some rain must fall and internet addiction could give us all a soaking. Watch out for the signs, symptoms and treatments as they hit the headlines. Global experiment World Unplugged reported that its 1,000 young participants reported symptoms akin to drug withdrawal when they went for 24 hours without media access.

Is India the New Dubai?
An ATM in Mumbai that dispenses diamonds, for impulse buys? Gitanjali, the jewellery company responsible, hopes to install 75 more sparkly ATMs throughout India. Plus, Hermès launched a Mumbai store (its third in India) with pricey sari designs. Look for luxury designers to tailor goods to local tastes: for example, Prada’s Made in India collection featuring woven sandals and embroidered cotton dresses.

Celebrating Ageing
With more than 25% of the world’s population forecast to be over 65 by 2030, old age is being redefined, as phrases such as ‘middle essence’ and ‘middle adulthood’ creep in and the marketplace gears itself towards the needs of this growing demographic, gradually reducing youth to a niche market.

Digital Detox
A natural result of internet dependency, more and more will seek to cleanse themselves and take themselves offline, at least while at the dinner table. Essential digital-detox reading is The Winter of Our Disconnect, Susan Maushart’s account of six months without digital devices. Establishments will soon be proclaiming ‘No Wifi’ as a selling point.

Power to the People
Socialising the mighty and the tiny. With the era of entitlement on its last legs and with social media continuing to connect us, more movements will be hatched worldwide. Common citizens will be more mobilised to speak out against everything from bullying to GMOs. Regardless of what you believe or where you live, people are talking loudly, clearly, and with great aplomb.

The New ‘Normal’
From reducing product sizes to new pricing structures, pared-back offerings to appeal to the tightly ‘squeezed middle’ will be the order of the day, as companies respond to the new ‘hour glass’ consumer reality and spending polarises between the high and low ends of the market.

Generation Go
The bleak employment landscape in the developed world is spawning a new generation of uniquely resourceful and entrepreneurial youngsters, each ready to create their own opportunities and meet the challenge of a depleted job market with a spirit of optimism and innovation.

Objectifying Objects
Mourning the demise of the tangible possession, as e-books and downloads replace record collections and a groaning bookshelf, there is a new fetish developing for the old-fashioned. It is a nostalgic need for the experience of possession and ownership, fulfilling both physical and tactile requirements.

Screened Interactions
As more and more screens inhabit our world, from outdoor ads to menus and walls, opportunities for interaction also increase – whether by touch, motion or mobile device – opening up a whole new range of opportunities for marketers worldwide.

Marriage Optional
The notion of lonely spinsters is set to be consigned to the dustbin of history, as women define their own destinies, be it as a single mother, a CEO of an investment bank or a firefighter. Markets will respond to the specific needs of the single woman, acknowledging both her personal and spending power, a woman’s success no longer being in any way dependent on their marital status. Witness the huge debate ignited by Kate Bolick’s article for the Atlantic magazine entitled ‘Why Millions of Women Like Me Will Never Marry’.

Redefine Your Life
‘Redefined spaces’ will be another phrase to watch for: as technology and the ability to work from anywhere (thanks to cloud-based storage and the continued proliferation of smartphones), so home and office will increasingly exist in one space and allow telecommuting to go 2.0. Builders will follow, looking for ways to satisfy renters and buyers with spaces that include a home office or at least a retooled second or third bedroom. According to the Urban Land Institute, “Large multifamily residential properties may profit as much from adjacency to office supply stores as to supermarkets and cleaners.” But what about workspaces for those of us who still have to leave home to get to our job? Look for Gen Y to wield some influence there, too: tech firms such as Google and Facebook are moving to urban locations to attract young talent who prefer an urban lifestyle and are giving their office design some cool makeovers. At Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters in California employees can customise their own spaces by tagging the walls, rearranging furniture and adding artwork. The social-media giant’s offices also include lots of spaces for collaboration, plus a DJ area. Look for offices overall to be less full as they transform into ‘meeting places more than work places’.

Can’t Buy Me Love
Financial woes wreak havoc on romance as men remain unemployed and disheartened and therefore become less viable mates. Even men who have jobs are often underemployed, leaving careers and marriage prospects permanently tarnished. Turns out, strong economies are tied to strong marriages and vice versa.

Lipstick Geeks
The technology barons are about to be unseated, as the girls infiltrate this traditionally male-dominated sector with the appointment of IBM’s first female CEO, Virginia Rometty, and 28-year-old Rachel Sterne named as Michael Bloomberg’s chief digital officer for New York City. Look for women to succeed in everything from start-ups to media gigs as they embrace tech.

A Grayer Shade of Gray
Extreme fatigue is setting in, so gray best defines the year to come. We’ve all come to terms with work and life being blurred more than ever, so gray, the colour of blur, is in our sights. Tracking on the new ‘graydar’ is going to help decode where we are headed this year. But it’s not just a metaphoric construct: the world really is going gray, with some countries seeing citizens getting older in record numbers. Nearly one quarter of the world’s population is 65 or older, so it’s no surprise that manufacturers are wooing an ageing market: LG’s successful new mobile phone boasts big buttons and text, and its new four-door refrigerators are designed to ease aching backs. Toyota has introduced swivel seats to some of its latest models to make it easier to get in and out of vehicles, and Asahi Shoes is promoting a shoe technology that’s good for reducing the strain on knees.

Retreat from Reality
With reality TV falling out of favour and viewers looking for new ways to escape, you’ll find TV fans embracing the next generation of scripted shows. Standouts include Modern Family, The Middle, Up All Night, and Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl. The next year welcomes a full-on push for TV on the Internet. YouTube will launch scheduled programming in 2012, with shows on everything from fashion to sports, while Google TV will debut as well, surely redefining the realm of the couch potato.

Brand-Me-Down
More brands will attempt to bridge two generations, like Kenwood, with its strong nostalgic values of parents baking with their children, or Tiffany with its pearls passed down from mother to daughter. Brands can also be passed upwards by generations. Children take their parents shopping at fashion brands Topshop and Superdry, or help grandparents pick an iPhone.

Social Goes Hyperlocal
There’s a mushrooming of social networks as they go micro, connecting us to communities in our own backyards. To join San Francisco startup Nextdoor you must live in the ’hood and use your real name. Plus, office conversations are now rampant online through private, cloud-based social-networking services such as Yammer, Chatter, Huddle and Jive (all taking cues from Facebook). For examples of this micro movement in the UK check out the websites chiswickw4.com or brookegreenbugle.com.

Cheap Thrills Are the New Black
The down economy is leading some couples to better appreciate each other: sales of lubricants, condoms and toys are all up as sex provides the (cheap) thrills everyone’s looking for.

Hotel Retail
Another trend on our radar is ‘hoteltail’. Look no further than New York City’s Ace Hotel as a stellar example of how hoteliers can surf the blurring of travelling, shopping and living (its partnership with cool retailer Opening Ceremony has been a big success). Other hotels following trend? The W has terrific boutiques in its hotels; The Standard sells everything from CDs to sarongs (and with an eye toward local); and Le Méridien is transforming its spaces in to ‘hubs’ – creative, art-filled gathering places designed to inspire and draw guests out of their rooms. Experience really is everything these days.

Illustrations by Tim Bradford