I see dApps becoming less and less social media/reward pool based, and more STEEM/SBD based.
To date, we have quite a few social media/blogging sites sitting on or connected to STEEM. Even with sizable delegations, none of them seem to be making a lot of money, and some have fallen away or scaled back considerably because of it.
That's because, I believe, that the reward pool wasn't designed to sustain or help develop dApps. It was meant to reward authors and curators. So, it takes millions of SP and constant curation to even try to meet costs.
More and more, dApps will have to be self-funding, meaning they're like Steem Monsters and make their money off of digital card sales (and whatever else they're doing), or they run a greater risk of failing. Which also means, to me, that they will need to stop catering to the social side of STEEM, and start cranking up the marketplace or commerce side.
So, rather than dApps being games, or social media sites, or even gambling related, they will be portals offering physical products and services in return for STEEM, along with digital. Social sites might actually find themselves adapting to this new commerce, by potentially integrating their sites with the commerce site to provide product reviews and ratings, and potentially, even being a form of customer service for those companies.
In my mind, the skies the limit. What about a streaming service that bellies up to the STEEM blockchain, so you can watch their entertainment package while paying for it monthly in STEEM. At current STEEM value, that might be 21 STEEM a month.
Areas in the world where the fiat is worth less than STEEM may want to try to lift sections of their economies through STEEM. Revenues based on $0.38 USD rather than $0.25 or much less might be more attractive, and easier to enter, than the full blown U.S. market might be.
I'm just thinking of things off the top of my head, so there will definitely be more things that could happen and also more things to consider, but I believe the dApps of the not so distant future (hopefully) will be more about transitioning every day products and services to STEEM, rather than trying to reinvent social media when the only selling point is earning rewards for a token that is underperforming.