Back to the orginal question...
Getting back to the original question here, personally I see some fundamental changes coming to woodworking. For instance for 200 years woodworking machines have been made out of cast iron, yet Steel City ironically enough has developed a granite topped tablesaw. Gimmick? Perhaps, but this might be the start of some new material choices that have always been based on tradition.
I see a big change coming in blade designs. Carbide and cryogenic treatments are costly and brittle, but today a lot more metals are "cladded". That is where they use explosions to bond two unlike metals to get a hybrid of metals. Aluminum for light weight and a layer of AR plate on top for wear resistance is an example. Japanese planes have had laminated steel irons for years, and now I see more cladded type cutting irons and blades coming into the picture. With todays super adhesives and use of harder and harder ceramics, I can see a day when we use a hand plane impregnated with ceramic powder on the edge of the cutting iron to give it the resilence of tool steel, and the hardness that surpasses carbide, all in a package that looks the same as the irons we now have. Look for these new impregnated ceramics on router and drill bits too.
I also see a parting of ways for many companies. With the extreme downturn in the housing market, I see those "flip this housers" and DIYers getting their own line of tooling, while other lines of tools are given to the craftsmen such as us. The DIY market will flatten out sales wise, where as the people that literall invest in tools for the long term, will be the stronger market. This is certainly nothing new. Black and Decker and Dewalt are the same company, yet they make two distinct product lines and have for years. Over the years those product lines have come together and now I see them splitting apart to catch up with the quality of the Lee Valley and Lie Nielsen type tool companies to catch that profitable side of the market.
I believe router and shapers have the best potential for change; they are to versatile to be left in the neglected state they are now in. I foresee reversible spindles so that directional and rotational cutters can be utilized. This is where a bit is designed to take a certain cut with clockwise rotation, yet flip back and set out a new cutting edge with reverse rotation. Think of the possibilities. You pass the wood from right to left on the shaper and make a stile type cut. You stop the machine, reverse rotation and pass another board through going from left to right. You just made a stile and rail joint and never had to change bits, adjust settings or mess with shims. Sound far fetched, these bits are now entering the metalworking industry....
Finally on the lathe end of things, I see more CNC machines entering the market. Again there is way too much potential lost with the current offerings of conventional machines. I envision hybrids of lathes and routers working in tandem with each other to create the most unique turnings ever imagined. With 4th axis rotation and other computer aids, I see some amazing wooden items emerging from talented woodworkers. Yes in their basements and garage shops because these cnc machine will run off home computers and cost a fraction of what cnc machines cost today.
I also see the days of buying gouges, skews and other tools as antiquated. I see lathe users buying less costly, throw away, bolt on carbide and ceramic impregnated cutting edges for these tools rather then the entire too itself.
Then with all these computer changes and whatnot, I see the old hand tools coming back into vogue too, so if you have stock in companies that make only hand tools, don't be selling it just yet to jump on the CNC bandwagon. The market for hand tool only furniture has not even reached it infancy yet, but it will. The return-to-hand-tools only has just begun.
Okay so thats how I see the future of woodworking. Any thoughts, and by all means, feel free to poke holes at my predictions, getting people to think about the future was the original goal of this thread. Hopefully I have jump started it again.