Another year, another crop of upstart startups looking to use South by Southwest as a springboard to success. So what's different this year?
Once again, if you go in expected to see the next Twitter, you'll probably leave disappointed. In fact, looking back over the past few years, SXSWi hasn't produced a hot new startup in a while. That doesn't stop dozens of new firms from attempting to make their mark on the event, which is now in its 20th year.
"The longer we're all in this business and the longer the business evolves, people get smarter, and understand that the more specific the needs are, the more specific the company is to address the needs, the more success there is," says Hugh Forrest, director of SXSW Interactive. "I think that is a big of an indication of an evolving, maturing marketplace."
Mature means that you're not likely to see a new social network that will supplant Facebook or Twitter. Instead, startups are working in the margins in niche categories like e-commerce and wearables. Also, more foreign startups are heading to Austin to put their firms on the map. Here's a short guide to some standouts:

Image: The Latest
Shopping on your desktop is so 2010. Mobile ecommerce is the new place to be as people turn ever more often to their smartphones. 2013 was a banner year for on-the-go shopping, with comScore reporting that consumers spent about $25 billion on their phones and tablets. eMarketers predicts that one quarter of online retail will be mobile by 2017.
That kind of market opportunity has spurred startups such as The Latest, a yet-to-be released app that aggregates and monetizes online lists of products. For instance, if Glamour comes out with its favorite Winter hats of 2014, The Latest grabs it and shows you where to buy the selections. The app will be launched by Mulu, a company that currently offers ad plugins that allow products to be bought directly on a webpage. Mulu was started in 2011 and is led by CEO and founder Amaryllis Fox.
Dapper looks to simplify men's fashion in much the same way as Cool Guy by creating shoppable outfits for various occasions. Dapper launched on Feb. 24, making it among the youngest apps in attendance.
Of course it's not just about making the sale. Customers must be retained if a business is to survive. Windsor Circle, founded in 2011 and based in Durham, N.C., was started to track sales, analyze data and execute retention strategies to make one-time buyers into loyal customers.

It is becoming impossible to draw a line between health and wearable startups. Each goes hand in hand. Health efforts need a way to track a person's body, while wearable computers need killer apps to make them viable.
Enter Kiwi Wearables, a Canadian startup that is taking preorders for its first product. Kiwi Move is a small, nondescript wearable that attempts to link together just about anything in your life. The company, which was founded in mid-2013, claims its wearable will be able to understand gestures and track your activity level and even control voice-operated appliances.
Wearables also offer a unique opportunity to do away with the dreaded password. Bionym's wearable bracelet uses your heartbeat to determine your identity. The company believes it does not need to stop at passwords, and could even do away with keys and even credit cards.
Bionym was started in 2011 and joins a burgeoning field of biometric security startups like FST21 and Microlatch.
While Kiwi and Bionym are thinking big, others are seeking to address particular problems. Active Protect has developed clothing that can detect falls and deploy small airbags to protect the hip bone, an area that is particularly susceptible to injury for older people. Kinsa is going after the other end of the age spectrum with a thermometer that plugs into smartphones to help parents track the health of their children.
Start-ups from around the world will be at SXSWi in unprecedented numbers. Companies from 74 countries will take part in the festivities, up from 57 in 2013. Denmark is represented by The Eye Tribe, which seeks to bring affordable eye tracking to smartphones and tablets.
AddSearch, from Finland, stays true to its name, adding a fast, effective search option to websites. YPlan was formed in the busy nightlife scene of London. It wants to help you find local events and pay for tickets in as few taps as possible. Founded in 2012, the app currently only services London, New York and San Francisco.
Right now you have to tell Siri how you're feeling. Pretty soon, she might be able figure it out on her own.
Eyeris is an emotion recognition company that can look back on webcams and read facial expressions to determine how a person reacted to a video. Eyeris then analyzes that data to provide an idea of how people reacted to a video.
Large companies have been taking notice of the appeal in eye-controlled software. Facebook bought a similar company, GazeHawk, in 2012. Samsung has been thought to be working on incorporating head tracking into its smartphones.

So on the upside, you might not have to answer anymore annoying surveys. The downside, marketers already know what you're thinking.