Anita Campbell's "Small Business Trends" blog has cataloged some great consumer-trends for 2004 and predictions for 2005.

"According to Datamonitor, these are the top 10 global consumer trends:"

Age Complexity
Gender Complexity
Lifestyle Complexity
Income Complexity
Individualism
Homing
Connectivity
Sensory Experiences
Convenience
Health

For 2005, Watts Wacker says:

Rise of the Gray Hairs
Premium is In
Trends of "Anti-trending" (a close relative to anti-design?)
Lock it Up
Accelerated Online Sales
Homeopathic Medicine
Low-impact Makes an Impact
Image Enhancement
Technology Convergence
Return of Loyalty

From Entrepreneur Magazine for '05:

Authenticity
Age 35 (marketing to)
Multitasking and Memory Loss
Obesity
The Third Place
Snobization
Uniqueness
Life Caching

Top tech trends from Red Herring for '05:

The death of distance
Desktop search heats up
Rise in web services
Home sweet digital home

If you're into this stuff, or care what a bunch of designers think of it check out our ongoing conversation on Core77.