With so many new buzzwords and technologies, it’s hard to determine which of these actually hold any clout in the modern business arena or have what it takes to become part of our lives in the future. Whilst we don’t profess to have all the answers here at Softwire, are the top five trends that we believe will make a real impact in 2017.
Virtual Reality
We predict that VR will continue to be one of the most significant developments in the technology space this year. VR has the potential to complement and improve daily activities. Facebook has marked its space in this arena and we are likely to see VR-related upgrades from the leading social media players. Products including Google Daydream Viewer and Samsung VR have increased the level of content for consumers to digest and we’re likely to see this with games, movies, TV series and possibly gigs.
Augmented Reality
With the overwhelming success of games like Pokemon Go, brands now see the huge potential of this technology. It’s taken stampedes of people in parks, racing to catch their next Pikachu to make anyone pay attention. We predict that 2017 will see consumers less apprehensive of accepting AR on their smartphones and devices. In fact, with many of the shocks the world has faced in 2016, perhaps it may offer a more appealing ‘reality‘ whilst not completely detaching us from the outside world.
Following its recent upgrade, Microsoft’s mixed reality platform, ‘Windows Holographic’, now promises a varied new set of reality experiences for Windows users. Apple could make a play for a seat at the table with AR offerings. Who knows, Magic Leap may even start shipping at some point later this year (well, maybe…).
Where AR surpasses its counterpart, VR, is in its hardware simplicity. There is no need to purchase additional complimentary hardware, there’s a much easier gateway to the experience – a mobile device. AR has the potential to enhance existing games, toys, work and retail and we’re excited to see what comes next.
Artificial Intelligence
During 2016, AI has developed significantly and as a result machine learning has become more universally understood. Consumers have benefited from the increased choice of digital voice assistants and it’s likely that many big players will see 2017 as an opportunity to take advantage of consumers’ understanding and appreciation of this growing tech trend.
With Google’s Assistant, and Amazon’s Echo marketing themselves as must-haves in the home, we could see champions such as Microsoft and Apple releasing their own respective Cortana and Siri-based competitive devices. AI will continue to grow smarter and smarter.
Screen Technology
We will take advantage of some of the emerging tech, AR and VR, on 4K screens and on smartphones. Yes, smartphones. HDTV technology is old news, curved screens and 3D just aren’t hitting the right buttons. Creating bigger and bigger TVs will not win any innovation prizes. Why is this one of our top trends? We believe that the manufacturing tides of transformation are turning towards the smaller screens, specifically those we have at our constant disposal.
We have seen OLED (organic light-emitting diode display) technology rise to become the flagship technology for smartphone screens. This year we’re likely to see the technology leveraged to help create thinner and more battery-efficient smartphones.
Why is this important? Why should anyone care? Will anyone ever really notice? Consumers are becoming more familiar with slipping their smartphones into their VR headset of choice.
With the screen so close, only higher resolutions can deliver the best experiences.
Security and Privacy
With the growth in artificial intelligence and IoT devices security is a key question. We will have thousands of connect devices, all communicating via the cloud, using real-time monitoring, logging, and data analytics – data on us. Security gaps with unpatched IoT devices could lead to significant compromises more damaging than previously thought. In order for these technologies to move forward security and privacy issues need to be taken seriously.
We will be closely monitoring these trends during 2017 and delivering bespoke digital solutions to our valued clients, to find out more read our other insights.
