Every decade or so, the technology industry restructures itself around a new set of principles. Mainframes gave way to mini-computers, minis to PCs, and now PCs are giving way to appliances. The old does not go away (PCs certainly aren't going to!), it just gives up its central role to the new.

Computer power is rising all the time, and computers are getting smaller, cheaper, and consuming less electricity. They're breaking free from the desktop and appearing in almost everything we touch and use. We call this pervasive or ubiquitous computing. The devices which result – whether they are digital cameras, MP3 players, GPS receivers, set-top boxes, toys or anything else – are appliances.

The relentless falling cost and rising power of information technology is causing a series of secondary trends in technology, design and the marketplace. Whole industries will be won or lost as the power of digital technology surrounds and invades new areas like the tide surrounding sandcastles on a beach. Trying to stand on a sandcastle is not an option – you have to learn to swim.

Download our trends whitepaper to read more about the trends affecting the industry and what they mean for the people caught up in them.