There’s a lot we don’t know about what’s coming for tech in 2025. AI could save the world, or ruin it, or do pretty much nothing interesting at all. A new US president could change priorities and policies on antitrust fights and privacy rules. Will TikTok get banned? Will the fediverse take off? Will it be the year of Matter? Will Grand Theft Auto VI change society forever? Will the next Mission: Impossible movie be awesome? Look, I didn’t say the stakes were always super high. But there are lots of questions.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and offer some answers — with absolutely no evidence. Nilay, David, and Wall Street Journal columnist (and forever friend of The Verge) Joanna Stern take turns offering their predictions for the year to come.
We start with our mildest, most milquetoast takes on tech in 2025, before ramping up to our biggest, hottest, spiciest thoughts. And because we need to be held accountable for our actions, we make a game out of it.
Here’s how the game works: Each host offers a prediction, and the other two get a chance to either agree with or reject the prediction. At the end of the year, whoever is right about that prediction gets a point. If you’re wrong, you lose a point. Next week we’ll have even more predictions, and even more available points. A year from now, we’ll review who was right most often, and we’ll buy the winner the coolest gadget of 2025, whatever that turns out to be. (We’re going to need your help deciding, too, but we’ll come back to that.)
Don’t read the below until you’ve listened to or watched the episode, but for the tape, here are our predictions and results:
- Joanna’s mild prediction: We’ll still be posting to a million different social accounts. (David’s in, Nilay’s out.)
- Nilay’s mild prediction: The new Alexa is going to be… fine. (David’s out, Joanna’s out.)
- David’s mild prediction: Traditional cable TV is going to be basically dead and gone. (Nilay’s in, Joanna’s in.)
- Joanna’s medium prediction: Meta is going to continue to outpace Apple on glasses. (David’s in, Nilay’s in.)
- Nilay’s medium prediction: Walmart is going to buy TikTok. (David’s in, Joanna’s in.)
- David’s medium prediction: Someone is going to make an AI gadget that is undeniably awesome and successful. (Joanna’s out, Nilay’s out.)
- Joanna’s spicy prediction: The iPad and the Mac are going to overlap… somehow. (David’s out, Nilay’s out.)
- Nilay’s spicy prediction: Google will break itself up all on its own. (David’s out, Joanna’s out.)
- David’s spicy prediction: The industry is going to walk away from Matter. (Nilay’s out, Joanna’ out.)
What are your predictions for 2025? What do you think we got right and wrong? Who’s going to win the game? Tell us what you think! And keep an eye on all the cool gadgets in 2025, because we’ve got a winner to buy for. Eventually.
