Like many media publications, this one included, The Guardian is publishing a few pieces on their tech predictions for 2014. This weekend they published a piece on the trends we might see this year in the app world. Shall we take a look?

An apps crash is coming

Bold statement, I would say. Positioned as a good thing, the Guardian's rationale is that tech start-ups who have overreached or didn't quite reach their projected revenue targets will go under. It feels like there's some credence in that assertion - a bubble has to burst, eventually - but with more tech start-ups than ever incorporating in 2013, will it happen in 2014? It'll probably happen at some point but I don't think this will be the year.

iOS and Android still front-of-mind for developers

Push the boat out there, Guardian. In other news, Pope confesses to Catholic worldview. For the two largest OSs in the market, it makes sense for developers to focus on them. There's a lot of innovation out there in the Windows phone space (and not much at Apple if you believe what you read) but market share isn't going to bother the other two just yet.

Privacy as a priority

Ideologically, I couldn't agree more. But if the web is dead and apps are the future, what kind of privacy are we talking about? Brand advocacy will remain important in the apps world so privacy maybe of the 'share with certain services and not others' variety. Which isn't really privacy. In the main though, the PRISM/Snowden revelations will undoubtedly play a part in the development of apps, in future, and that can only be a good thing.

A more constructive debate around free-to-play gaming

Even the most altruisitic of software developers has to make a buck, so as good as free-to-play games are, it's understandable that they're often of the freemium model, rather than truly free. Could the popularity of games such as QuizUp lead to more games with an educational tone go viral? I hope so. Perhaps the gaming world will bleed into training and education 'proper' - but more on that later.

Messaging apps spread their wings

The Guardian posits that messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat etc will branch out, but I'd say that the converse will be more of a common trend. We will start seeing more and more apps that wouldn't normally have a messaging function built in, come with that functionality as standard. A share of the world's voice is increasingly important currency and making communication between members is key.

New platforms, new gimmicks. But then what?

Google Glass looks ridiculous. Functionally it's clearly incredible, but it doesn't look like a pair of glasses. How about designing a pair of working glasses that also have Google Glass functionality? Google deserve massive credit for being first out of the blocks with something so game-changing, but the game as a whole isn't going to change in 2014. It's just got a new player that's better than everyone else. While Apple continues to atrophy, Google will do well to see its Glass project gain any serious traction. So here, I agree with the Guardian's point that the value for Google might be to spread the research over a wider audience.

Education, education, education

Even though the focus is on the consumer apps market, there was no mention of the M word. A focus on getting kids to learn to code and make apps, rather than just use them, is a fantastic development, and through products such as the Raspberry Pi are instrumental in making this happen, but what about MOOCs? I recently installed the Coursera app, which is great for organising and discovering new courses but admittedly doesn't allow you to study within the app - at the moment. I also downloaded the codecademy app not so long ago too. The basics of coding in under an hour. It's surely only a matter of time before the term 'MOOCs' is superseded by a moniker that doesn't seek to compartmentalise the learning experience so much, as apps become the norm for the learning experience, both for hands-on and hands-off education.

Step into my office

As the BYOD trend continues, the Guardian reckons we'll see more and more business apps developed for consumer devices. From my experience we'll probably see more mobile-enabled versions of websites, as app development is often prohibitively expensive, from both a resource and finance point of view.

Disruption versus regulation

Disruption. Bit of a buzzword, that. David vs Goliath. Agile vs inflexible. The debate will rage on - this is potentially where the biggest developments in business will come in 2014. How app culture can integrate with big business and how that will improve the average person's working processes. It's going to be a long difficult road to freedom from bureaucracy, but everything points in that direction.

Time to think about putting down the device?

Really? Maybe for consumers, but in business it's going to be about picking the device up more often, in my opinion. I do more and more work from my mobile and I know I'm not the only one.

What do you think? What will 2014 bring for the world of apps?

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