By Erick None of the links below are affiliate links, and I am not earning any commission from any of these services or websites. The purpose of these links are only to serve as examples to get my point across to you, which is that you need to look harder to find value for your rupees in buying tech these days.
YES I know – an entire month has passed in 2025 so what’s the point of making tech predictions for the year now? Well I made this on purpose because I was waiting for two things: CES 2025 to complete and to just the industry’s reactions to them, and for the first two flagships to release.
Also, why do we make predictions and not just wait for the actual events to happen? Well we do that anyway – wait for stuff to happen then take action or modify our plans accordingly, but as rational humans we like to prepare. For example, if you’re planning to buy a new laptop this year and think you might want to wait for the next MacBook Air lineup – you can plan to wait till March 2025 for what may be Apple’s next MacBook Air release (at least according to Digital Trends and many others) and expect to spend upwards of ₹ 1,50,000/- if the upgrades meet your requirements.
The other reason I’m prompted to write this – and quite frankly the most important reason – is to help people buy value and not hype. Let me explain this through my first prediction. There are also actions based on each prediction that you should take note of below.
Prediction 1: The AI Bubble will Burst
You knew this was coming, didn’t you? 😉
What I say about buying hype and not value – Artificial Intelligence (AI), at least in its current state, is more hype than value. Think about it – in the last couple of years, since the launch of Chat GPT, the so-called Big Tech have been using AI to drive up hype, and hence so-called “value” leading to companies becoming more “valuable” than others. Their definition of “value” is vastly different from the kind of “value” that you and I need to spend our money on as consumers.
Let me say something very clearly, something that you knew deep down but probably need to hear:
In its current form, AI has not proven that it will drastically change our lives for the better.
Think about two things – the promise of AI vs. the actual AI that is being sold to us. A great example is Apple Intelligence, which has been promised, but what has actually shipped as on date of this post falls significantly short of the promise. Don’t take my word for it – watch these two videos that are two months apart:
See – more promise then actual AI shipped.
So far the only AI that has been of some use for a few people – content creators more than others – has been generative AI such as Chat GPT and the like, and image / video generators like Leonardo AI. And they don’t necessarily help everyone. You may use Chat GPT (or DeepSEEK, lol) to help you with text for a blog post, but the technology is simply not there yet to make the bot write a blog post that reads like an actual human wrote it (even if you use this AI tool that promises to “humanize” your AI-generated text).
What I slightly fear will make this AI crash hard is the amount of money that has already been spent on the promise of AI – see stats here. However, the crash will affect billionaires more than the average consumer, who will just be mildly disappointed in these billionaires when they realize that the AI Revolution is just another billionaire promise to make billionaires become bigger billionaires.
This is not to say that AI will disappear. My argument is that all the hype will come crashing down – like NVIDIA’s stock price did when DeepSeek came out of nowhere – and over the next few years, AI’s adoption will be more gradual and integrated into tech workflows. Kinda like the bluetooth story – when it was invented, people said it would revolutionize gadgets and it was used by the then-Big tech to sell promises (sound familiar?) and then its usage crashed almost overnight, but over the next few years it was gradually embedded into devices so much that now it is an indispensable feature of phones and other devices.
If I can dare to graph-out the AI bubble burst and its adoption over the next ten years, it would look like this (I made this graph using MS Excel – without the use of any AI whatsoever. In fact, the only AI I used in this entire post are the images that I generated using Leonardo):
Action / caution: In 2025, do not buy any device on the promise of AI. Make purchase decisions for technology that is actually shipped, not technology that Apple, Google or other promise will be shipped.
Prediction 2: Portable Gaming Devices Will Increase Market Share
For the last five years, if you asked me which is the one gaming console that works for most people, I’d say the Nintendo Switch. Launched in 2017, it has been one of the most successful, versatile, fun, and amazing gaming consoles ever released. Time-testing gaming titles like Mario and Zelda along with new game titles that were played on a transformer-like modular console that could be played in your hand as a kinda-tablet, on a small screen that stood on a flimsy stand, or connected to a TV. And it’s amazing that for 8 years, the only iterations are a Switch “Lite” and an OLED Switch.
Now, Nintendo gave a trailer of the Switch 2. And in all honesty, I hope they don’t drastically change the Switch because I love it so much.
What has happened since the Switch launched – Valve released the Steam Deck, ASUS launched the ROG Ally, Lenovo is launching the Legion GO and other names are really not far behind. Heck, even Sony launched the Playstation Portal and Microsoft has something in the works of a handheld version of Xbox. And there are “boutique” consoles already out there like the Ayaneo and Retroid.
I hope a home-grown Indian tech company builds a handheld. Lava? Micromax? Why not!
CES 2025 was also indication of a slew of handhelds to come – from the likes of MSI and Lenovo (see Tom’s Guide’s post).
If you’re wondering about the two “fixed” console giants – the Playstation and Xbox – they’re expected to take until late 2026/early 2027. But you can be sure they will have handhelds of their own.
Action / caution: If you’re in the market for a gaming console in 2025, wait until the Switch 2’s full release and reactions, and choose among the available options then.
Prediction 3: Screens will get bendy (on purpose)
Remember the iPhone 6 “bendgate” scandal? Maybe the iPhone 6 was just ahead of its time. Because at CES 2025, Samsung actually showed off screens that bend and roll:
And there’s also this rollable / extendable laptop screen from Lenovo.
Let’s face it – for a long time, there was limited innovation on screens, which by and large are flat glass panels with lights behind them, apart from resolutions reaching 8K. Samsung did impress with the Galaxy Fold series, and then companies like OnePlus and Honor and others made more impressive folding phones. And then in September 2024, Huawei came out of nowhere (as we are getting used to Chinese companies doing – coming out of nowhere with mind-blowing tech) with its tri-fold phone.
The showcase from CES 2025 actually proved that the technology is there for screens to fold, bend and roll easily. I expect that this year we will start seeing it incorporated into devices like phones, tablets, televisions and even appliances like refrigerators.
Action / caution: This is impressive but will take a couple years more to be fully integrated into everyday devices, like how folding phones came to be. If you want to wait for a rolling television to be worth your money it might take more than a year from now.
Prediction 4: More devices will be Made in India
MAKE IN INDIA for the win! But there are more reasons than political that manufacturers are setting up shop in India – even Chinese / Taiwanese manufacturers like FoxConn.
Today, the iPhone, Samsung and Pixel phones are partly manufactured in India. So are Lenovo tablets and PCs, Xiaomi smartphones and TVs, and LG appliances, among others. Heck, there was even a strike at a Samsung plant in 2024. There has also been grand announcements from Reliance and Tata.
What I would love to see are more home-grown brands altogether, like Lava whose phones I’m a big fan of.
Action / caution: This, unfortunately, has not resulted in cheaper electronics for Indian consumers in India. The iPhone has not been cheaper since it became part-manufactured in India, neither have the other phones. So far this has been only a win for the economy.
However, I believe that this is an overall win for Tech India. Take Tech China’s story – for decades, it was the backyard manufacturer for the world’s leading brands, and today it is home to the world’s leading brands (Lenovo, DJI, Insta360, Xiaomi, etc.)
Speaking of price…
Prediction 5: Gadgets will become more expensive
You know, taxes and stuff.
Prices for flagship phones, top-end computers and other high-end gadgets have been rising faster than inflation over the last few years. Even when Apple or Samsung tells you they haven’t increased the price of their “base level” phones, the truth is that they know very few will buy the lowest-spec’d gadget and more will opt for upgrades on specs, which are more expensive and where their margins lie.
Taxes are a reason why the prices remain high, but I don’t think it’s the only or even the biggest reason.
It’s downright the ugly face of capitalism – billionaires chasing record profits and pacifying investors / shareholders.
And it’s ugly but is a sad reality of the tech world.
Action / caution: Make your devices last longer. That phone you thought you will upgrade this year – upgrade next year instead.
Will 2025 be a revolutionary year in Tech?
No. That’s it – no. Don’t let anyone make you believe that any tech will change your life in one year. A “revolution” takes years – like the old saying, an overnight phenomenon takes years of work and evolution. Revolution is built on evolution. Nice!
Comment below your tech prediction of 2025 which is not listed above.
Thank you for reading! My name is Erick and I am an Indian Tech blogger and content creator. I talk about more than just new gadgets and software – I talk about tech policy, trends and consumer behaviors that you need to know about and that could be affecting you, so you can make more informed tech related decisions. I stay out of sponsorships, affiliates or sponsored content so that you can be assured that my reporting is completely independent.
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[…] This fits nicely with my 2025 post-January tech predictions which I wrote and published BEFORE the union budget was announced, check it out. […]