Top 10 technology predictions for 2013

Seeing into the future is what everyone in the technology industry is trying to do to try and spot the next trend before rivals, to realise what customers want before they know themselves and to avoid issues before they arise.

Apple has been fantastic at doing this in recent years, while many others have not, leading to numerous disastrous launches and many industry heavyweights falling on tough times, although in 2012 Apple had to play catch up in the 7in tablet market.

This means for many firms 2013 will be a key year in their evolution, or decline, while wider trends around technology such as 4G are likely to continue their growth and impact the market in new and interesting ways.

As we begin another year that will no doubt be full of unexpected twists and turns we at V3 have put our heads together and had a chinwag and put together some thoughts on what we see happening in the next 12 months.

10. 4G to become the norm, and pricing to fall

For years it seemed like the UK would never have 4G services, such was the in-fighting and distrust among operators, regulators and government. However, the end of 2012 saw EE bring superfast services to these shores for the first time, with the promise of more to come.

The auctions for 4G, set to start in January, should see O2 and Vodafone, and perhaps one other such as BT, emerge with new spectrum to bring their customers speeds well in excess of typical 3G connections, helping the UK boost its digital standing.

Ideally, come the end of 2013, we'll all be able to access these services across the UK, and in the ensuing price battle between the operators the costs will have fallen to the same levels currently seen for basic contracts. This may just be a bit of wishful thinking on our behalf.