What will be the next big idea after social networks, and why?

Answer by Pavan Boob:

Things move so fast that its extremely hard to predict the next big idea. However, its helpful to see how the industry is shifting and what could be next possible low hanging juicy fruits

 

1. Infrastructure is almost commoditized.
A fancy way of saying, infrastructure can now be bought ‘as-you-need-basis’ fairly easily by a common consumer. Platforms like AWS, Heroku initially led the way followed by early stage startups like PagerDuty, http://Neptune.io who are closing the final loops. Simultaneously there has been huge innovation in open-source infrastructure and support providing easier infrastructure setup. Hbase, Kafka, Postgres, Hadoop, Spark, Solr, Elastic Search etc.
Consequently, a company with 10 infrastructure engineers few years ago now employ only 1 person to manage these commoditized products. Also new roles like DevOps have evolved.

2. Apps and UI are on its way to getting commoditized.
Because of infrastructure automation a lot of brain has moved up-the-stack productizing user interfaces and web frameworks. Now, you can create a simple website within minutes using drag-n-drop website creators like Unbounce, Weebly, Launchrock etc. (Checkout SuccessMentors which I made using these)
Its also easier to create full-fledge applications with UI-frameworks like Bootstrap and Web-frameworks like Rails. (Checkout CareerSwitch.me  that I created over few weekends)
WebApps and UI components would get productized much faster rate than infrastructure. Also new roles like UX have evolved.

3.Software is rapidly automating all industries.
Commoditization of infrastructure and applications have sharply reduced the cost of prototyping a web product.
Hence, entrepreneurs can now pursue insane ideas that are automating the heck out of all industries. eg: Uber — calling a cab. Open table — booking a restaurant table. Amazon- Purchasing products. Netflix — renting movies. Welcome to the ‘one-click’ revolution. Who is going to automate 1-click ?
Simultaneously new workflows that never existed are created. eg: Now you can share extra space in your house, share extra-space during your travel,use new form of currency or even create a fake girlfriend!
Basically, software is rapidly changing our everyday-life. Also everyone now calls themselves an entrepreneur ☺

4.Hardware is coming back.
Hardware and Software have changed their status from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘in a relationship’.
There are lot of low hanging opportunities in hardware where time-to-market could be extremely less compared to traditional hardware products. A lot of people are taking advantage of this opportunity. eg: Nest transforms thermostat. August is transforming locks. Fitbit is transforming fitness. This has given rise to a new trend called Internet of things (IoT).
Few years back, software industry went through a phase where smaller well defined problems were solved reliably and productized which eventually lead to the current state one-click data center capabilities and drag- and-drop websites.
Soon hardware products could be prototyped as rapidly as software . HelloRaspberry Pi and 3-D printers. Also embedded software engineers would get back in demand.

5. Mobile growth.
This has happened so rapidly and at scale that everyone knows everything about Page on it.it continues to bring together hardware, software, location in innovative ways. It’s also a special case of Internet-of-Things successfully scaled and commercialized by giants like Apple and Google.
Mobile continues to transform our lives.

6. Data explosion and Insights.
Say it with me “By-product of cars is smoke and by-product of software is data”. Server logs, User data etc
Now think about this: # of websites have rapidly grown, each website tracks a lot more data, everyone has multiple devices, and the world spends huge amount of time online. These factors multiply to create DATA explosions! Now, since its already efficient to store and search data, the industry is racing to derive knowledge from it.
Because of huge amount of data-points about everything, its getting possible to derive statistically significant ‘INSIGHTS’ from data. We are moving into world of predictive technologies (recommendations, classifications etc) — Insights. Yes Google understands you better than your mom.
Academic innovations are making their way into products. Also, new roles like data scientists have evolved. PHDs and statisticians are back into mainstream business.