The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →In a December 2014 CIO column, technology analyst Rob Enderle picked ten developments that, in his view, made the year remarkable. His list mixed products people could use with emerging research and predictions—not a measured ranking. Other year-end roundups chose different stories, and one World Economic Forum writer said the year had no single dominant technology story.
That mix is what makes the list useful: it captures what looked consequential at the time, while showing the difference between a commercial launch, a lab demonstration and a columnist’s forecast.
What Enderle considered the defining tech developments of 2014
Enderle’s ten headings covered consumer hardware, business leadership, security, emerging technologies and industry relationships. The claims about broad market shifts below are his assessment; his column did not provide shipment data, investment totals or a shared scoring method to verify them independently. Read Enderle’s December 19, 2014 CIO column.
- Head-mounted displays stumbled. Enderle judged that head-mounted displays had “belly flopped.” His column offers no adoption figures, so this is best read as his contemporary verdict rather than a quantified market result.
- PCs returned to favor. He argued that PCs were recovering as tablet growth slowed, and pointed to thin-client devices in education. The article names no shipment dataset or specific education measure.
- Subject-matter experts returned as CEOs. Enderle saw companies favoring chief executives with deeper expertise in their fields. He did not identify the companies or quantify the trend.
- Blended attacks emerged. He highlighted attacks combining techniques, presenting them as a security development businesses needed to take seriously.
- 3D cameras and printers expanded. He included both 3D imaging and printing among the year’s growing technologies. That broad category encompassed very different levels of capability, from consumer experimentation to research demonstrations.
- Some firms went private. Enderle treated companies leaving public markets as a notable business shift, but his article did not supply a count or name specific transactions.
- Artificial intelligence accelerated. He said AI-focused businesses had reached “critical mass” and that scientists and engineers were warning about possible risks. The column names neither the companies nor the warnings, so it supports an account of his view, not a numerical claim about the field.
- The Internet of Things became real. Enderle described a stronger push to connect devices, while criticizing the attention he saw paid to securing and managing those systems. This was a concern he raised, not a reported survey result.
- NFC payments gained visibility. Near-field communication became more tangible to consumers through Apple Pay, announced for US launch on October 20, 2014. The new service made a wireless-payment technology easier to see, though a launch announcement is not evidence of universal merchant or customer adoption.
- Suppliers worked together—at least in some relationships. Enderle saw improved cooperation among suppliers, while criticizing Google’s relationships with original equipment manufacturers. That contrast was his industry assessment, not a measured comparison.
Why Apple Pay made NFC concrete
Apple announced that Apple Pay would become available in the United States on October 20, 2014. At launch, in-store payments used Touch ID on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus; the service also supported in-app payments. It depended on compatible devices, participating banks, merchants and contactless readers, so the launch did not make every card or checkout eligible. Apple’s October 16, 2014 announcement said participating banks represented 83 percent of US credit-card purchase volume. That was Apple’s launch-period figure for cards from those banks—not a share of all payments or a statement about current coverage.
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Enderle also noted outages and incompatibility among merchants and providers, underscoring the difference between a prominent launch and a fully seamless payment network. Apple presented privacy and security as part of its design; its claims should be understood as the company’s own description of the service.
What else was changing across phones, watches and TVs
Platform announcements provide a concrete counterpoint to the broader judgments in Enderle’s list. Google described Android 5.0 Lollipop as its largest and most ambitious release to that point, with more than 5,000 new APIs for developers. It positioned the software for phones, tablets and TVs, and introduced Nexus Player as its first Android TV device, alongside Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. These were Google’s 2014 announcements, not evidence by themselves of how widely devices or features were adopted. Google’s Android 2014 blog archive also records the expansion of Android Wear watches, including models with different shapes, sensors and downloadable watch faces.
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How 2014’s science demonstrations fit into the story
Enderle’s column was not the only contemporary attempt to identify the year’s important technology. David Green, a Monash University professor, published a separate World Economic Forum roundup on December 17, 2014, explicitly describing his choices as his own and “in no particular order.” Its ten innovations ranged from biological and materials research to robotics, medical demonstrations, drones, space exploration and energy systems. Green’s WEF list illustrates how much a “top ten” depends on what an editor counts as technology progress.
3D printing: a prototype is not a home printer
Green included several striking 3D-printing projects. A Princeton demonstration combined five materials and incorporated light-emitting diodes; an Amsterdam project aimed to print a house. These were research and engineering efforts, not proof that a consumer printer could reproduce the same results. Green also cautioned that some advances could take decades to transform daily life. His roundup is a record of promising demonstrations and projects, not a product-availability guide.
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The WEF list also described a self-assembling swarm of 1,000 mini-robots, drone-delivery experiments, a brain-computer interface demonstration, and a spinal-cord repair case involving olfactory cells. Those examples differ in maturity and purpose: a demonstration, experiment or individual case does not establish routine deployment or proven performance at scale. The list’s value is as a snapshot of research directions that attracted attention in 2014.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why no single list settles what mattered most
Shane Richmond’s separate World Economic Forum roundup of 2014 technology news began: “2014 has been an interesting year in technology news, but one without a dominant story.” It included events beyond Enderle’s ten, such as major data breaches, Facebook’s WhatsApp purchase, the Amazon Fire Phone, Microsoft under Satya Nadella, Apple Pay, Alibaba’s IPO, Uber disputes and HP’s announced split. Richmond’s December 19 retrospective makes clear that a roundup’s answer depends on whether it prioritizes consumer products, business, security or scientific possibility.
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Read Enderle’s “amazing year” framing as an informed but subjective selection. Its strongest historical use is not as a definitive ranking; it is as a record of what one commentator thought was changing in 2014, including both excitement about new capabilities and concern about security, compatibility and the gap between a demonstration and everyday use.
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