2025: The Year in Review

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#2025 #YearInReview #LookBack #ThatWasTheYearThatWas
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Published on 25 December 2025 by Andrew Owen (3 minutes)

As 2025 comes to a close and this blog enters its fifth year, it’s time to return to the well for a look back on the year and, because it’s a year with a 25 in it, the last quarter century. Revisiting my predictions for 2024, I was a little ahead of the curve on some of them:

  • Consolidation in video streaming.
  • 5G coverage reaching 50% of 4G coverage globally.

One thing I didn’t foresee is that although it’s getting harder to buy white goods that don’t come with WiFi, most people don’t connect them to the internet. Other things of note, from my perspective, that happened in 2025 were:

  • Resumed my blog on a monthly basis.
  • Production edited the Lonely Planet pocket guide to Glasgow.
  • Created an API style guide.
  • Switched to browsing with Firefox.
  • Got up to speed with alternate app stores and emulation on iPad.
  • Created a free open source online documentation solution for enterprise called docStatic.
  • Started a new job as a technical documentation lead for a practice management software company.
  • Created an information architecture with Chat-GPT 5.
  • Release of iPadOS 26 transforms the iPad into a full computer.
  • Completed a year of learning French with DuoLingo.

The big question in 2025 for me is: is this an exceptional year, the start of a period of increased instability or the new normal? And the follow up is: how did we get here? From some viewpoints, the period between November 9, 1989 and September 11, 2001 was one of unprecedented stability. But the 21st century (which began on January 1, 2001) has been a time of rapid change. Take Apple as microcosm:

  • 2001: Debut of MacOS X, Apple retail stores and the iPod.
  • 2002: Acquires Emagic (Logic), releases GarageBand.
  • 2003: iTunes Store.
  • 2006: Macs transition to Intel processors.
  • 2007: iPhone and Apple TV.
  • 2008: App Store.
  • 2010: iPad.
  • 2011: Siri. iCloud.
  • 2012: Apple Wallet (Passbook).
  • 2014: Apple Watch. Apple Pay. CarPlay.
  • 2015: Apple Music streaming service.
  • 2017: HomePod. Original scripted content on Apple TV.
  • 2020: Macs transition to ARM processors.
  • 2023: VisionPro AR headset.

What stands out to me is Apple’s ongoing transition from a hardware company to a services company (the fastest-growing part of the business). This was the period when all the big software companies switched to subscription models. No one owns anything anymore. We’re all just renting. And the markup we’re paying to big tech is insane.

My thought for 2026 is: when will the AI bubble burst? Remember the dot-com bubble? The market is behaving the same way around AI now that it did around the internet then (and Dutch tulips in the 1630s). When the dot-com bubble burst, the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE) for the S&P 500 stood at 44.19. It is currently 40.74 and rising. We still have the internet and we’ll still have AI, but I think there will inevitably be a revaluation at some point, and probably soon.

Last year I stopped doing predictions for the year ahead and instead came up with a list of good things happening in 2025. And yet, just like predictions, many of them did not come to pass. Which means you can continue to look forward to them in 2026:

Happy New Year!