Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

“Every failed idea from the dotcom bubble would work now.”

— Marc Andreessen

Every year, Benedict Evans publishes a “big presentation” on the current trends in tech. They are always excellent and they help to put a lot of things into perspective. This year he covers everything from TV subscriptions to online mattress companies (there were 175 of them as of last year), and asks: What’s next in tech?

New technologies have typically come in S-Curves (see above). They start out slow, see rapid growth, and then taper off. To use Benedict’s wording, they go from stupid to exciting and then to boring. Smartphones are currently in the boring phase. Each new year sees only incremental change. So, what’s next? That is still TBD.

To download a full copy of the presentation, click here.

Slide Image: Benedict Evans

2 responses to “Standing on the shoulders of giants”

  1. Peter James Avatar
    Peter James

    I don’t know what the technical name for it is but wouldn’t on-demand geo-based services be the s curve after smartphones and that’s boring now and we’re waiting for the next thing? Uber, Postmates, Letgo, Turo, Yelp, Starbucks curbside Mobile, Target in-app in-store, Home Depot (thank God I don’t have to ask a worker where something is anymore), etc.

  2. […] in February, I shared a presentation by Benedict Evans about the macro and strategic trends that have been playing out in the tech industry. (Of course, […]

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