3D-PRINTING
3-D printing, creating three-dimensional solid objects from digital models, is gathering momentum. Printers that once cost $30,000 now are priced at about $3,000 and have the potential to rewrite the rules of global manufacturing.
"This is a huge technology, it's definitely going to be very big," James Ross, senior portfolio manager at Alliance Bernstein, told CNBC. "It will disrupt traditional manufacturing big time. You don't need nearly as many factories in China—or Africa, if that's next."
The market for 3-D printing was estimated at about $1.7 billion in 2011 and could hit $6.5 billion by 2019, according to research firm Wohlers Associates.
MOBILE PAYMENTS
Mobile payments can include storage in digital wallets or a payment initiated or accepted from a mobile device such as a phone or tablet. Canada-based IE Market Research forecasts $1 trillion of transaction value by 2016.
In the mobile sector, near-field communication (NFC) is slowly emerging as the market choice for device makers. Developed over the last five years, NFC lets consumers tap and pay for items using their smartphone.
"We've been promising NFC for the last five years, and it was always going to be next year," Bill Gajda, global head of Visa Mobile, told CNBC. "I'm more confident now than ever that we're going to see this thing take off during 2015."
CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing is making waves, with service providers falling over themselves to offer the biggest and best solution.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), a form of cloud computing, is an Internet-based software delivery model, where customers use their browser to access software running from public data centers. Examples include Google Apps, Microsoft 365 and Amazon Web Services.
The cloud software market had revenue of $22.9 billion in 2011, up 30.9 percent from 2010, according to the latest research from IDC. The market intelligence firm expects cloud software to grow to $67.3 billion by 2016—a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent—and projects that SaaS delivery will significantly outpace traditional software product delivery, growing nearly five times faster.
AMAZING TECHNOLOGY INVENTED BY MIT
E-CIGARETTES
No smoke without fire? The growth in tobacco-free, battery-powered products is making even Big Tobacco sit up and take notice. The electronic-cigarette industry is moving quickly. Sales were $400 million to $500 million in 2012 and will "at least" double this year, Wells Fargo's Bonnie Herzog told CNBC.
"We're actually predicting that consumption of e-cigs could surpass consumption of traditional cigarettes in the next decade," she said.
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