Now that we're are firmly in the age of mobile, what technology, trend or service will make the biggest impact in 2013?

IMHO (h is for humble) with projects like Google Glass, Ingress and the continued assault of data on our daily lives, 2013 will be the year of augmented reality. This tech, data visualization technique has refused to die and with so much noise it's a great way to get signal.

What do you think? Is there a stronger candidate?

I have no doubt that the impact of Google Glass and AR will be huge but I think it's still to early for it to dominate 2013. I find it far easier to list the things that won't dominate 2013 than to speculate what will.

RIM is going to accelerate downward, and Nokia and Microsoft are going to follow. Microsoft won't perish but I think they'll be tempered over Windows 8 and Surface. Nokia's HERE is interesting, and with a market cap of around $10b they might get acquired for it.

Of course, I haven't really answered your question. I think we're left with "the year of the 7 inch tablet" as the Nexus 7, Amazon Fire, and iPad mini battle for remains of the PC empire.

I expect 2013 to actually look a lot like 2012. The primary reason being that if they was going to be any sort of disruptive tech wave finally breaking through to the masses, the early adopters would already be using it now.

That said, I see 2014 probably being the year of mobile payments. There's enough of a current now that once there's a major payment platform that Apple is onboard with (on a hardware level / maybe Q3 2013), we should see some midwestern housewives paying for groceries with their iPhones.

As far as AR, I just don't see that going mainstream within the next 2-3 years. What's the killer application? I've heard smart windshields in cars, but that seems rather far off from a popular adoption standpoint.

I agree with Dakotareese's view on 2013, it will look like 2012' but better. Thing will change and technology will go further, we'll see the next iPhone and iPad, we'll see some new cures for deceases and I hope we'll see a better world-economy.

I also think that in 2013 Branch will get way bigger, lot's of people I know like the idea but just don't want to be the first. (The Dutch saying "When one sheep is over the dam, the rest follows" explains this good) Further when Branch is getting better, more people will like it and try to convince other to join too. So, 2013 will be the year of Branch.

I imagine we'll see people sharing less of their public lives and they will start to retreat 'inwards'. So many have been burned by being so open and so social and I foresee products like Evernote, webmail, Springpad and more taking hold as they still generate an "online" experience but allow for privacy.

Yes, we will continue to see tablets, mini-tablets and phones as well.

I agree with Raimond, but for a different reason. 2013 will be better because we won't have to listen to all that Mayan-calendar-end-of-the-world crap. Or we won't be listening to anything. :)

Just to touch back on the original question, and the "Now that we're firmly in the age of mobile" statement...

I believe that 2012 was the first year since 2005(?) that I had not heard someone proclaim that it would be the year of mobile.

The point is that normally change occurs very slowly, and I just don't see how it would be possible to maintain the pace that we've been on for the last five years.

Honestly, 2013 will probably be a year of corrections. Some bubbles will pop and reality will rein in analysts' expectations. Good ideas and executions will continue to thrive, but I doubt we'll continue to see the ridiculous VC investments and monstrous IPOs that the last 18 months have given us.