Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- Anton Walhman speculates about the future of Google’s Chrome operating system. According to Walhman, Google is likely to expand the range of tablets and smartphones that are powered by Chrome, providing consumers with an OS that can be controlled by Google and offer a seamless user experience between different devices. Within a few years, Apple iOS, the open source Android OS, and Google’s Chrome could be the primary choices for portable touch-interface computing.
- A recent German study concluded that obesity can begin in the womb. Babies that are over 4 kg or 8 pounds are twice as likely to become obese later in life. This may be a more important factor than the weight of parents or grandparents.
- The 2013 Internet Trends report from Mary Meeker of VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers has been released. Among other data points, the reports cites Internet user growth of 8%, year-over-year to 2.4 billion global users. [Slideshow]
- Adam Penenberg at PandoDaily looks at a possible future where Google Glass and quantum computing merge, resulting in, among other things, de facto telepathy.
- The longstanding consumer trend towards convenient products seems to be alive and well–and perhaps reaching new extremes. According to IRI data for the 52 weeks ending March 24, the microwave popcorn market grew less than 1%, while ready-to-eat popcorn grew by almost 12%. Advertising Age hypothesizes that “today even a few minutes [wait] might be too long for some consumers”.