And these apps are a small percentage of the entire tech industry but get 100% of the press on sites like Techcrunch.
Most products and technology are boring. It doesn't mean the 1% fringes aren't doing exciting things.
Such as robotics, automated cars, automated surgery, machine learning/NLP services, VR (ala oculus/Magic Leap), smart AI assistants are improving rapidly (Siri/Cortana). Business intelligence and data mining are new massive industries.
Nor does the fact one niche (social networks/mobile apps) becoming saturated with products means that tech innovation is dead.
IF most of the applications of software are boring and software is to 'eat the world' then there is at least another decade or two of purely boring stuff needing to be transferred to software. For ex: no-one is tweeting about advances in business automation.
It is a small percentage of the tech industry. But it's a good percentage of startups. A good percentage of yCombinator companies. A good percentage of what we discuss on Hacker News.
Have you looked at any portfolios on VCs websites of startups they invested in? The majority of them are all boring companies, and you'd never hear about them even when they sell for a $1 billion.
Many people on HN work at startups building boring software. They just dont site here discussing it because it is boring. And lots of the articles here are a reflection of the tech journalism, not industry.
That being said there are tons of articles on HN discussing robotics, automated cars, magicleap, etc.
Most products and technology are boring. It doesn't mean the 1% fringes aren't doing exciting things.
Such as robotics, automated cars, automated surgery, machine learning/NLP services, VR (ala oculus/Magic Leap), smart AI assistants are improving rapidly (Siri/Cortana). Business intelligence and data mining are new massive industries.
Nor does the fact one niche (social networks/mobile apps) becoming saturated with products means that tech innovation is dead.
IF most of the applications of software are boring and software is to 'eat the world' then there is at least another decade or two of purely boring stuff needing to be transferred to software. For ex: no-one is tweeting about advances in business automation.