The Pfeiffer Report on Emerging Trends and Technologies

It is tempting to blame illegal downloads for the decreasing sales of Audio CDs, but a closer look at the music business shows us that the issues facing record companies today are much more deep-rooted.
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Spotting trends is difficult business: when you can measure them it is usually already too late. When desktop publishing revolutionized print production over a decade ago, everybody involved in it knew that we were witnessing a tectonic shift in the way documents were produced - yet it was a long time before statistics could show in a clear way what was happening. On the other hand, contradicting public enthusiasm can be difficult when the hype engine runs at full throttle: when we published a trend report in September 2000 which voiced some doubts about the viability of the e-book market, we received some very outspoken messages questioning our mental sanity.

We have watched emerging trends in media and technology for a long time, and it is our deep conviction that there is no way of measuring the disruptive patterns of innovation. If you want to catch the very beginning of a new trend, you can not expect the reassurance of statistical verification. You have to go out on a limb. You have to trust your judgement and your experience.

And that is exactly why we are publishing this trend report: to share the trends which are showing up on our radar. The reports we publish do not appear regularly: trends do not come with a press release attached, and they have their own unpredictable calendar. That's why our reports appear when we have spotted something meaningful rather than according to a preestablished editorial calendar. I hope you will find them useful.

Andreas Pfeiffer

Small-Screen Video: A New
Creative Playground
The future belongs to original content conceived for the small screen.

Do We Need an Operating System for Images?
Is the world of digital imaging at the brink of disaster?

Thinking About Convergence
More and more devices mix different features. Not many do it well.

Ever since digital media and the Internet have begun to challenge conventional media, the impending demise of the latter has been predicted by industry observers and casual on-lookers alike. But today's media reality is beginning to look somewhat different. Read Trend Analysis

The New Laws of Digital Technology

Forget functionality, welcome to the age of the User Experience…

User Interface Friction Benchmarks: Windows Vista

Eye-candy aside, how does the new Aero interface stack up compared to Windows XP and Mac OS X in terms of low-level user interface efficiency?.

Understanding User Interface Friction

A new concept to help us understand, define and quantify differences in user experience of operating systems, software, and digital devices.

The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Wired, ZD Net...
Major news media all around the world turn to the Pfeiffer Report for expert comments on emerging trend and technologies. Contact us!