Businessweek has just released a special report on 2007’s trend in technology; from designing touchscreen-based technologies and more personal products for users as seen in iPhone’s case, to making internet a reality TV. This is the year where all the tech companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, Philips, are trying to conquer the market to meet all the World’s Tech Needs. Go and check out this issue’s Business Week for the Eight Top Tech Trends in ‘07.

The world has changed! With our evolving economies, that grow and grow on and on, we find ourselves being the generation of people that live the most secured life ever. For most newborns in the Western World their expected age of death will be more than 80 years. This same group of people are blessed with an education that allows them to grow within their society and they earn more then enough money to stay a live, really more then enough. These kids have no worries, expect how to achieve happiness with their blessed lives. From this generation comes the new trend: Transumers. Trendwachting.com comes with a clear article about this group and defines them as: “consumers driven by experiences instead of the ‘fixed’, by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions. The fixed is replaced by an obsession with the here and now, an ever shorter satisfaction span, and a lust to collect as many experiences and stories as possible. Hey, the past is, well, over, and the future is uncertain, so all that remains is the present, living for the ‘now’.”

It is the right here, right now (fatboy slim) generation that will boost this trend. Delivering something just a bit too late makes it so yesterday (hilary duff). So where should you be keen on as a company?
Well transumers have some characteristics to be used by entrepreneurs:
- transumers will try to avoid hassle, the more they own the more they have to worry about. Transumers are there to adopt the leasing-lifestyle, which takes care of problems like: product repairs, getting out-of-style, theft and so on.
- transumers will determine you to deliver fast and good. They want the latest the greatest. Watch out Mrs. Hilton, because there are millions of people on their way to do things before you have done them.
- transumers will not stick to the same, they want multiple experiences. Good is not good enough anymore. Delivering the best is not a guarantee of future success. Transumers will do everything to make maximal use of their ‘limited’ budgets.
- transumers are sensitive to status. Status kills for them. Their goal in life is not to earn money, but earn respect by status, with or without the money.

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We live in a world of absolute INNOVATION OVERLOAD: clever entrepreneurs, inventors, and marketers from all over are coming up with so many innovative ideas, that even innovation blogs have a hard time keeping track. Trendwatching.com has a superb trendbriefing up talking about new trends in the innovative industries, simply a must read for new designers. Below you will find the main points of the trend briefing, with a link at the bottom to the full briefing.

1. Everything can and will be upgraded

From Canada to China, hundreds of millions of consumers are becoming more prosperous every year. And the really prosperous ones already have everything they really need. No wonder, then, that a trend like MASSCLUSIVITY (exclusivity and luxury for the masses) shows no signs of slowing down. So what’s next? How about UPGRADE EVERYTHING?

2. Everyone needs daily lubricants

The convenience trend, which is all about making harried lives easier, is not only going to be with us for a long time to come, it’s also one of those trends that make it easy to come up with new business concept and ideas. After all, what can NOT be made easier? Don’t forget, to consumers, time is the new currency.

3. A world without online oxygen? Never!

Think the online revolution is entering a more consolidated phase? Neither do we. Consumers are deeply addicted to ONLINE OXYGEN, still spending more time online year in year out. They want to be online, they need to be online. There is no better space to innovate, to endlessly introduce new services, than this one.

Read the whole article at Trendwatching.com

A year ago, people spoke about the READY-TO-KNOW trend: consumers increasingly depending on extreme transparency of information to empower their private and public lives. Twelve months later, with new spottings and insights flooding our research folders, we have renamed this trend (and upgraded it to) INFOLUST. Please scan and get going! Show us one experienced, switched-on consumer in a mature consumer society who does NOT google once a day. Or even once an hour. One consumer who has NOT researched the cheapest available fare, price, charge before buying a big ticket item. Who has NOT invested some time reading reviews, recommendations and suggestions from experts and fellow consumers on anything from hotels in Paris and designer vacuum cleaners to which specific seat to request on flight SQ220 from Sydney to Singapore. One who hasn’t relished the feeling of being better informed about everything from 18th century gardening to alternative medicine to the real reasons for high oil prices, than his/her peers or, even better, his/her superiors.
All thanks to the insanely expansive and detailed web of information that continues to be spun, offering transparency of prices, of reviews, of opinions, and of detail. Yes, you’ve heard this before. But just for a moment, marvel at how incredibly addicted consumers have become to getting instant access to any kind of useful and relevant information. In fact, consumers are experiencing nothing short of an all-encompassing INFOLUST:
“Experienced consumers are lusting after detailed information on where to get the best of the best, the cheapest of the cheapest, the first of the first, the healthiest of the healthiest, the coolest of the coolest, or on how to become the smartest of the smartest. Instant information gratification is upon us.
So forget information overload: this desire for relevant information is insatiable, and will soon move from the online world to the ‘real’ world to achieve true ubiquity. Get ready for a click-and-know, point-and-know, text-and-know, hear-and-know, smell-and-know, touch-and-know and snap-and-know world.”Read on @ www.trendwatching.com