2025 in tech: who’s in and who’s out

Dec 15, 2024 10:00 PM - 2 months ago 75520

Hello! I’m present from the future. And I person immoderate news. 12 months from now, each the Big Tech CEOs are still successful their jobs, everybody’s utilizing folding phones, Apple made a TV, and Nvidia is the astir valuable institution successful the history of the universe. Wild year, huh? Or possibly not? It’s difficult to remember. Time recreation messes pinch your representation a little.

On this section of The Vergecast, the 2nd installment of our two-part 2025 preview, we statement immoderate earnestly iffy storylines from the extremity of 2025. David, our resident clip traveler, brings america immoderate large stories that either did aliases didn’t hap successful the twelvemonth to come, and Nilay Patel and Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern person to thief fig retired what’s existent and what isn’t.

Will personification really bargain Snap? Is GTA VI going to beryllium the biggest crippled ever? Will Bluesky proceed to ascend and time off Threads successful its wake? Nobody knows yet, not moreover the clip traveler, but we person immoderate thoughts and ideas.

As was the lawsuit pinch past week’s episode, we’re keeping score. Here’s really it works: each big has to decide, for each 2025 news story, whether it’ll beryllium existent aliases not by the extremity of the year. Every correct conjecture earns you a point; each incorrect conjecture costs you one. At the extremity of the year, we’ll full the scores, combine them pinch past week’s guesses, and bargain the victor the coolest gadget of 2025, immoderate that turns retired to be. (We’re going to request your thief deciding, too, but we’ll travel backmost to that.)

Don’t publication the beneath until you’ve listened to aliases watched the episode, but for the tape, present are our predictions:

  • Tim Cook is still the CEO of Apple. In fact, each 4 Big Tech CEOs are the same. (Nilay, Joanna, and David each opportunity yes.)
  • Nvidia is the astir valuable institution successful the world. (Nilay says no, Joanna and David opportunity yes.)
  • Somebody acquired Snap. (All opportunity no.)
  • OpenAI is officially a for-profit company. (All opportunity yes.)
  • OpenAI is simply a profitable company. (All opportunity no.)
  • The authorities is breaking up 1 of the large tech companies. (Nilay and David opportunity yes, Joanna says no.)
  • We’ve had a huge, society-sized AI scandal. (All opportunity yes.)
  • One aliases much of Max, Paramount Plus, and Peacock nary longer exists. (All opportunity yes.)
  • Netflix’s unrecorded worldly is working, and it fundamentally killed cablegram already. (All opportunity no.)
  • GTA VI is a huge, giant, smashing success. (Nilay and David opportunity yes, Joanna refuses.)
  • Folding phones are legit mainstream now. (All opportunity no.)
  • The Pixel 10 is by acold the champion and astir successful Android phone. (All opportunity no.)
  • The Nintendo Switch came out, and it’s benignant of a dud. (all opportunity no.)
  • Apple is really making a TV. (Nilay and Joanna opportunity no, David says yes.)
  • The caller Alexa? It’s sick. Everybody’s utilizing it. (Nilay and Joanna opportunity no, David says yes.)
  • Waymo’s presently having its large moment. (Joanna says yes, Nilay and David opportunity no.)
  • BlueSky is much applicable than Threads. (All opportunity yes.)
  • BlueSky is really arsenic large arsenic Threads. (All opportunity no.)
  • Apple launched a hunt engine. (Nilay and Joanna opportunity yes, David says no.)
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