21 Startups and 4 Trends You Need to Know Now

The tech-startup world is one of constant development and rapid innovation, and it's hard to keep up. Here are four emerging categories and the startups within each to keep your eye on. The Trend: Content Creation Condition One Reimagines Video for Mobile Devices Founded by former photographer and video journalist Danfung Dennis, Condition One offers a video technology that changes how people create and view video for mobile devices. The software is designed to give viewers the feeling that they're "there," right where the video was shot. As viewers turn their phones to the left or right, the perspective and frame of reference shifts with them -- as if they were behind the camera looking in either direction. This isn't video that can be but rather is meant to be viewed on mobile devices, taking full advantage of the fact that users can move and manipulate their phones, something they can't really do to their TVs. The use cases range from 360-degree tours of car interiors to creation of remote-participation experiences for concerts and sports games. Condition One Product Video from Condition One on Vimeo. Others to watch: The Trend: Big Data Search engines, as we've come to know them, work really well on PCs, but mobile devices just aren't conducive to the same dynamic: Type your query, browse results, click link, click back, click another link…etc. Grokr for iOS, and its Android counterpart, Google Now, are attempts at rethinking 'search' accounting for the way users interact with mobile behaviors. When you consider the amount of money Google has made in cornering the "intent" market on PCs, you might imagine similar prospects on mobile, and the opportunities for marketers and retailers to insert themselves alongside the other relevant information presented to users. Others to watch: The Trend: Commerce A product of Y-Combinator and run by former Amazon supply-chain engineer Apoorva Mehta, Instacart is already up and running in San Francisco. Instacart drivers are equipped with smartphones and when assigned to an order, actually pick up the product en route. Employing this type of crowdsoucing allows the startup to circumvent the need to keep any inventory. The price isn't cheap -- running $3.99 for three-hour deliver and $9.99 for one-hour -- but when in need something right away, many may find it worth the cost. This space is already heating up, with Amazon and eBay both already offering similar same-day options in a limited fashion, as they test the waters. Others to watch: The Trend: Smart Interfaces Just a few years ago, Kinect hackers heralded gesture control as the future. Last year, in the wake of Apple's Siri, voice control was all the range. In all likelihood, no single method of interaction -- touch, eye tracking, gesture control, voice -- will be dominant or the sole driver of the keyboard's obsolesce. Rather, taken together, these technologies speak to a near-future where users interact with devices in a drastically different way than they do today. Considering how the marketing and media industry reacted to the challenges and opportunities brought about by the behavioral changes following the mobile revolution -- and the fact that many are still struggling to adapt to that shift -- many may already be preparing for the impeding impact of Leap Motion and its counterparts are trying to assert on the computing experience. Others to watch:

21 Startups and 4 Trends You Need to Know Now

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