90 years ago they’d tell you ford is doing some cool stuff with the Model T but they wonder what’ll be next… there’s so many startups! The next thing is around the corner.
80 years ago they’d tell you ford is a massive player and is probably working on something new and exciting.
70 years ago they’d thank ford for a job, and tell you how exciting their mustang is.
60 years ago…
50 years ago they’d tell you how depressing Detroit got. Everyone left and the jobs left and it’s just ford still and they didn’t change much about cars!
40 years ago they’d tell you the same and cars are still basically the same but now everyone is buying a Japanese car because gas is so expensive! Ford will come back and show off a fuel efficient one shortly for sure!
30 years ago they’d tell you how depressing Detroit is. There’s so many Asian car brands now!
20 years ago they’d tell you about alternative fuel. Batteries (terrible!), hydrogen (promising!), biogas (maybe?). So many people working on alternative fuels for cars… that are just cars.
10 years ago everyone would tell you Tesla is the future. A car… but make it electric! The fuel efficient American car of the 80s came true.
Now? People tell you Tesla. Maybe every other car company will be electric.
TLDR. There might not be a next big thing for a while, but no one in tech will see it they way no one in Detroit saw the next big thing (it wasn’t cars). Tech is broader than cars, but we “figured out” computers, phones, etc.
Maybe VR and alternative interfaces aren’t established and have room to grow but maybe it’s just a toy. Maybe crypto will change how people do things… but maybe it’s a Ponzi scheme. Batteries may be big in the future, but that’s hardly a bold prediction based on how much we use batteries. Maybe AI generated content will supplement existing media but maybe that’s too uncanny for people and the tech won’t mature fast enough. People seem to be rejecting mass-social media (fb, twitter) in favor of more personal forms (DMs, BeReal) but maybe that’s just a reversion to normal after a temporary phase of society. Voice assistants exploded a few years ago, but now players are starting to back out (Cortana). Was that because every tech company FOMOed that trend that didn’t come?
Every business you see today wants more stability. Does Alexa exist because Amazon thinks the world needs a voice assistant and they can do better or because it gets people to buy more stuff? Every trend from a major company should be inspected for the line they share with their VPs when they fund it to know who wants this product.