Times have changed, and so has technology; new trends in technologies have started emerging one after the other, it’s a massive roll out. Lets have a look in the past and present, from those big handy mobile phones to smartphones, from mainframes to ultra books, from hypertext invention to web 2.0 and now cloud computing; we have come a long way. With this on-going revolution in the world of technology, it becomes quite difficult to keep pace with these new advancements coming in the market, so we thought why not compile the latest additions for our readers so that they know it now. So, let’s have a look at the most promising technology trends for 2014! :-)
- Wearable Tech - We all know what’s in store when talking about wearable tech. Google Glass, Smart-watches like Samsung’s Galaxy Gear watch and the Pebble Smart watch is the future in this cadre. Recently, Google announced its sales of Glass to all U.S. residents, expanding the wearable tech market. Apart from this, there are lot of health-tracking devices like the Nike Fuel Band, Jawbone Up and Fitbit Force, which can now be integrated with so many healthcare apps and this has become a major force in driving the health technology market into the mainstream. Wearable technology is fast emerging at the moment and according to research firm ABI; this industry will hit $6 billion by 2018.
- Robotics - Another technology, which is reaching the horizons, is robotics and artificial intelligence. Google with its incredible portfolio of the Cheetah, Petman and Atlas has made the world wonder of what the technology giant has planned for machines. If you are a robotics geek do participate in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) robotics challenge which have the finals in the end of 2014 and the winners will receive a whooping $2 million as prize money.
- 3D Printing - The future of 3D printing is bright and is expected to hit the mainstream soon. According to growth projections by IDC, 3D printers units will have a compound growth rate of 59 percent and revenue growing by 29 percent from 2012 to 2017.
- Data Privacy - this is one of the most sought after concept after NSA's snooping mission blew off courtesy Edward Snowden, as a result of that millions of internet users have now started taking steps to safeguard their data using methods such as email encryption, clearing browser caches and cookies etc. In US itself, a lot of cases were filed against the US government for breaching the privacy of the people, which are still pending. The global service providers Google, Microsoft were also put under the scanner for letting NSA snoop through the customer's private data, as a result they have announced initiatives which would prevent agencies like NSA to collect personal data through the services offered by them.
- The World of Internet - According to many reports and research studies, it is been said that the Internet is still in the beginning stages of development; and we thought it had reached at its maximum potential.. At the 2013 IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, technology company Philips demonstrated a concept called the HomeCooker neXt that allows users to roast, steam or sauté a range of dishes, with separate meat and vegetable compartments, and the AutoStir technology prevents burning and ensures thorough cooking. Now you might be wondering why we are talking about kitchen appliances while we started with talking about Internet, well here the catch is the cooking device we described above can be controlled using your smartphone, now isn’t that an awesome and clever way of using technology.
- Smart TVs - Just watching movies and shows on TV is just not on cards nowadays; instead you can now use TVs to browse the Internet, launch apps and have social interactions. LG is planning to release a feature that lets users communicate with smart home appliances, using a mobile messaging app called Line, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Samsung’s smart TVs will soon let users use voice command and gestures to change the channel, control the volume and stop videos.
- Mobile Apps - Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment. It is also predicted that apps will continue to grow, as they are more targeted and smaller than the real applications. The next evolution in user experience will be to leverage intent, inferred from emotion and actions, to motivate changes in end-user behavior.
- Cloud Computing – Cloud is the buzzword these days, and especially amongst the IT and services industry because of the flexibility that cloud computing is offering to its users. Companies like Amazon, Linode, Windows have set standards where they have replaced the need of having a physical data center in place, with better features related to data privacy and disaster recovery. To explain you more, in the cloud/client architecture, the client is a rich application running on an Internet-connected device, and the server is a set of application services hosted in an increasingly elastically scalable cloud-computing platform. The cloud is the control point, and the applications can span multiple client devices through the use of the browser available at client devices, mobile and desktop alike.
- Personal Cloud - Cloud-computing has not only benefited the service delivery organizations but has also influenced the way we work at the personal level. Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Skydrive are such robust and easy to user services which allow you to maintain all your necessary files on the cloud, and you can access the same files through multiple devices such as your personal computer, your smart phone etc. making your data organization much more convenient and accessible round the clock.
- Smartphones Market- Not everyone must be a proud owner of a smartphone, but that will eventually change. Swiss giant Credit Suisse says that over 1 billion smartphones will sell worldwide in 2014, getting a boost from demand in China. According to IDC, smartphone shipments in China’s growing market are estimated to hit 450 million units in 2014 – compared to an estimated 360 million in 2013.
Hence now we know that what’s on offer, and how much more the technology is going to change with time. We should all be geared up to reap out the benefits that technology has to offer in times coming ahead.
