

Ask HN: Has cloud and mobile already happened? What's next? - jamesjguthrie

I would like to suggest that the cloud and mobile has already happened and get suggestions on what fellow HN&#x27;ers think is next. Here&#x27;s my reasoning:<p>In cloud computing, Amazon, Heroku, Linode etc. have that pretty much sewn up. In cloud storage, Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, Mega etc. have so many storage offerings, price points and features that nobody could hope to compete with them. I believe that the only scope left in the cloud is to build apps using the existing infrastructure.<p>In mobile there&#x27;s already too many operating system and platform offerings. The respective app markets have each been driven to the lowest price points and are saturated to such a point that the old &quot;There&#x27;s an app for that&quot; saying could now potentially be &quot;There&#x27;s a load of apps for that.&quot;<p>Some say that &#x27;Big Data&#x27; is the next big thing. What do you think?
======
Arjuna
Focusing on gaming in my response here...

I think the next "Big Thing" is that we are going to start moving more and
more toward Augmented Reality (AR) [1] and Virtual Reality (VR) [2].

Thoughts:

1\. Look for gaming to start heading in the direction of VR with technology
like Oculus Rift [3]. Also, with someone of the caliber of John Carmack [4]
involved, with not only his passion and skill, but his ability to work with
graphics hardware manufacturers and driver developers to effect change and
garner the necessary support and backing, expect to see vibrant, compelling
developments in this field.

Here is a video of John discussing some of his VR work. It is from E3 2012:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg)

2\. Look to see more games like _Ingress_ [5] as things start to move toward
AR.

3\. I realize that this may be an extreme, perhaps well-into-the-future
example, but check out this short film entitled, _Sight_. It is not difficult
to imagine that this is where we are heading with technology like Google Glass
(e.g., Note in the film the gamification of things like cooking and dating.
Personally, the dating part is scary.)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI)

\--

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_Rift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_Rift)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack)

[5]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_%28game%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_%28game%29)

~~~
ghostdiver
It is yet another cool gadget rather than something what can significantly
improve your life.

------
sharemywin
The internet of things. Sensors everywhere. 3d printing. open design.
manufacturing getting smaller and more personalized. drones will become legal
to fly commercially soon in US(maybe). if transportation gets disrupted with
cars that drive themselves, what could you do with a drivable car api. I
personally think a lot could be done with robotic arms and outsourced
brains(telepresense). augmented reality glasses api? object recognition api? A
kickstarter project reached $10 million. what kind of project can get created
with say $100 million?

~~~
amitdugar
I agree with Internet of things being the big thing in future.

It is just matter of time when everything we use will have its own API.

------
AznHisoka
I don't really worry what the next big thing is. I worry about what problems
people want to solve, and what solution to implement.

~~~
robodale
What this person said.

