Fashionable. Trendy. New. Different. Important for entrepreneurs.

Of course you don’t need to always be new and exciting, or different or trendy, to make a successful new business. Just do something well, offer value, do something people want and will pay for; that’s a really good start. Think of the restaurant business. Just because there are millions of them already, does that mean new ones don’t start and make it? Of course not.

Still, new business happens more often, more readily, on new business landscapes. Technology keeps offering new opportunities. I can’t help thinking that as entrepreneurs we should be aware of the major technology trends. Which are, for me at least, the four in the title here.

Over the long holiday weekend I read “Why Twitter Will Endure,” a good thought piece by David Carr on NYTimes.com. Everything he says there makes sense to me. If you like Twitter, there are no surprises in that piece. If you don’t, maybe you should read it.

Although I liked what Ann Handley added to it, on Twitter:

I like @carr2n‘s NYT piece, but I still think @stevenbjohnson said it best last June: “Twitter matters because it’s about what matters.”

And those other three? Well, just within the last week or so, there’s Ben Kunz on Business Week with “5 Ways Apple’s Tablet May Change the World.” And Seth Godin touts the growth of the eBook reader in this piece on his blog. And Megan Berry, of Mobclix, on “How to Get in on the Mobile Boom.” (disclosure: she’s my daughter)

Maybe none of that affects your business, specifically; but should we agree to add the word “yet?”  As in, none of that affects your business yet?


Tim BerryTim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.