It’s been awhile since I used this space to make any predictions about the coming months, but the end of the year is always the logical (if cliched) time to do so.

So here goes:

• The migration of manufacturing to North America will accelerate, and the mainstream media will begin to report that OEMs are also reestablishing internal production lines.
• Flextronics will buy at least some of RIM.
• Robots as substitutes for human labor will be heavily hyped but lightly used.
• Ousted Altium founder Nick Martin will hook on with a budding cloud-based software company and build a PCB CAD tool.
• At least two new PCB CAD vendors will emerge.
• Electronics manufacturing companies will end 2013 with less cash in the bank but brighter prospects for the future.