Magento 2 aims to modernize the platform through a new technical stack and improved performance and scalability. Key goals include streamlining customizations through dependency injection and plugins, simplifying external integrations with a REST API, and enabling easier installation and upgrades via Composer. Magento 2 will also focus on high code quality and testing through expanded automation. The timeline includes developer and merchant betas in 2014-2015, with ongoing releases planned post-general availability in 2016-2017.