Read Technology in 2014, Part 5: The Courtroom Drama

Read Part 4: Is China Calling The Shots?

 Read Part 3: IPOs Galore

 Read Part 2: M&As To Make Or Break Companies

 Read Part 1: Collaborations Rule The Day

Technology development in 2014 focused on the move to cloud computing on the one hand and the internet of Things (IoT) on the other. On the devices side, the distinction between consumer and enterprise receded further, with Apple (AAPL – Analyst Report), Google (GOOGL – Analyst Report), Microsoft (MSFT – Analyst Report) and Intel (INTC – Analyst Report) spurring the trend. Measurement and tracking of health information assumed greater importance and wearable devices to record this information (other than the new iPhones) started entering the market. Digital content of dashboards increased and home automation technology started making headlines with Apple and Google leading the way.

Intel nearly missed the mobile revolution, but started winning a few designs on Android and Windows devices this year. The subsidies it pays hardware makers for using its more expensive technology will likely continue next year, but the total amount will come down once its own integrated technology is available. Intel also tied with Rockchip to facilitate the development of integrated solutions suited to the Chinese market. On the IoT front, it announced a number of wearable devices in conjunction with fashion houses like Opening Ceremony and Luxottica, displaced ARM in Google Glass and announced a new IoT platform for the development of standards. Intel's processor speeds remain industry-leading, but latency in memory solutions is likely a limiting factor, so next year could see some solutions to deal with this problem.  

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo (YHOO – Analyst Report), Amazon (AMZN – Analyst Report) and Apple are at war. While each started out with its own area of expertise that did not encroach on the others' (except Google and Yahoo in search), the need to defend market share, grow revenue and diversify the revenue source had most of these companies creating platforms to drive sales as seen in the table below. They also do all they can to ensure that consumers don't defect to competing platforms.