3 Bold Tech Predictions for 2022

It's a new year, and that means it is time to make predictions tied to 2022.

In this video from "The Virtual Opportunities Show," recorded on Jan. 4, Fool contributors Asit Sharma, Demitri Kalogeropoulos, and Jose Najarro each offer a prediction for tech investors, related to Apple (AAPL 1.27%), Meta Platforms (META -0.52%), and DocuSign (DOCU 1.02%).

Asit Sharma: We're going to move to our bold and not so bold predictions for this year. I'm going to go to Demitri to help us start wrapping up the hour with his prediction for 2022 within the virtual opportunity space.

Demitri Kalogeropoulos: I'll be quick. I'll say bold or not bold. I think 2022, is a year when Apple releases some major new product. People have been talking about the AR glasses. They've been, I guess that's the most likely idea or some wearable device that incorporates they are the automobile. I'd love to see one of those. I doubt that's going to happen. I think we're going to heard something by now, but it's going to be that imminent but maybe not natural card, maybe something on the way to that. But I think this is the year that Apple adds another pillar to its devices. I know there's talk about being an off year 'cause they refreshed all their product lines so last year and so the work, the idea on Wall Street that Apple's just going to take it easy this year, but I think the company might surprise us with some bigger stuff.

Sharma: I have to [laughs] put in a word here. Let's see. As I speak, I am putting in, I think Steve Jobs passed away in late 2011. Apple at that time was around 500, a big company looks like about $500 billion in market capitalization. Let's go with that number. I remember, Demitri, like the very next year, people are waiting for the new innovation that Apple is going to come out with. Steve Jobs passed away can Apple still innovate it. It turns out that all their innovation was focused on this one product suite. Of course, that's probably given short-shrift to their innovation and content. All kinds of technology like Apple Tags, which they just don't get credit for the earbuds. There's so many things Apple has produced, but they haven't made this thing you are talking about this major innovation. It's been so many years and yet here they are a $3 trillion company. I actually think this is a very bold prediction from you. [laughs] I'd love to hear Jose's thoughts, but have to turn to him for his prediction since we're running after time.

Jose Najarro: For me, my bold prediction will be if Oculus sales continue to be high as they were this quarter, the new social media application that some of these social application giants are going to need to be worried about, in my opinion, is going to be the metaverse or this platform that Facebook is creating. So might be good for Facebook. Reason being is during the overall holidays, one of the things I was checking over Twitter's just the increase demand of Oculus and I kept seeing experiences where random people were going to things like: online virtual reality movie theater, and watching movies with random individuals and watching, I think they were watching Thor, numerous of individuals were playing golf with random people. I think the social media application maybe not of 2022 at the end of 2022. But one that will be a strong contender will be whatever this Facebook Meta Platforms is creating.

Sharma: Awesome. Just to wrap it up, I have a not so bold predictions, is it really small, but my prediction is that 2022 is the year in which we'll see some unlikely suspect start to embrace NFTs for their technology. I think some small local governments will start embracing NFTs for compliance and title aspects. I think we will see some companies that play in a space that is similar to NFTs DocuSign is one that comes to mind. Flip their business models and insert NFTs right into the middle of them. I see with the technology that DocuSign has produced, there is space for it to use the authentication feature of NFTs. I think this could be the year in which they go for something that's associated with collectability and scarcity into something that's seen as more of a utilitarian type adult just as Jose mentioned. Five years from today, of course, I get how embedded this is in our society. That so we'll see that's not so hard to figure out or predict. But I had to let you guys go big because I'm conservative by nature.