13 predictions for 2013

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4. You're unique. Just like everyone else.

Stephen Bradley

The Cult of Apple bubble will burst and we'll all be wearing Android next season

Why is it that when Apple is the largest corporation in the world by market value, we still think we're special when we have an iPhone, or a cute little iPad mini, or a MacBook Air? How is it that Nokia and Samsung make more phones and yet you never see anyone showing off one of their new handsets with the smile of a new parent? 

There are few people out there who can name the CEO or design chief of Samsung or LG, but Apple leaders make for household names. The answer to why Apple generates such a passionate reaction is simple: everything it designs is elegant, satisfying and effective. 

And yet, the next generation of tablets and smartphones won't be all Apple. They'll be Android. They already are, we just haven't noticed. Android's share of the market has gone from less than 3 per cent three years ago to 75 per cent now. What's behind that number is something more interesting.  Android has 90 per cent of the market in China. Apple has 4 per cent and its phones cost three times as much. 

To paraphrase William Gibson, Android are already here, they're just unevenly distributed. So why are people buying Android? It's simple: price. It's just that it doesn't steal the headlines because the operating system runs on a multiplicity of different devices. 

Buying something because it does the job and is good value is nowhere near as appealing as buying something that's overpriced but inescapably cool, but as smartphones become ubiquitous, Apple will need to invent something else with cachet that will make you feel unique again. Just like everyone else.