As we are in 2015, here’s a look at the top 10 emerging technology trends that are poised to take off in a big way.
Mobile payment systems
The growing popularity of Apple Pay will cause a wider
acceptance of mobile payment systems – a technology segment that does away with
the need for physical cash by allowing you to make payments with your
smartphone.
Also called as
digital wallets or e-Wallets, mobile payment systems allow you to make in-store
and online payments as well as money transfers by downloading an app onto your
phone and linking the service or app account to a bank account or credit/debit
card.
Popular mobile
payment systems, other than Apple Pay include Google Wallet, PayPal, LevelUp
and Square Wallet. As of now, a majority of these are available only in the US,
though we may some of them expand to other countries in the coming year.
Apps for on-demand services
On-demand radio and TV apps are dime a dozen. But in
2014, we saw the rise of other on-demand apps that proved real life savers by
giving you an urgent ride back home and meals delivered in no time.
While this year saw
a flood of radio cabs and food delivery apps catering to your needs, not to
mention the rich and the lazy, you can expect on-demand services to expand into
other segments, too, including on-demand beauty services, hotel reservations
and even emergency health services.
Beacons
Beacon technology uses
Bluetooth to sense the location of a device and work with apps to carry out
certain operations. In the coming year, we may see several applications making
use of this technology.
Social payments
Messaging app Line recently launched Line Pay to
allow users to transfer money and purchase items directly from the app. The
service will also let users pay for goods when offline.
Payments via social
apps are quite common in China and Korea, where WeChat and Kakao Talk are
dominant players.
Globally, mobile
payments through social apps are an emerging trend and we’ve already seen some
early adopters including Snapchat. Facebook and Twitter are also
working on in-app payment services on their respective platforms.
WebRTC for mobile devices
Media streaming is picking up at an exceptional pace, but
with a majority of activity being carried out on smartphones there’s a pressing
need for quick load times in videos, games and other media without compromising
too much on the quality.
Ephemerality
Self-destructing photo and video app, Snapchat, many have
joined the ephemerality band wagon and we expect this trend to grow.
Earlier this year,
Facebook offered to buy Snapchat for over $3 billion. On being turned down, the
social-networking giant introduced a similar service called Slingshot.
Facebook-owned Instagram launched Bolt, which is currently available in limited
countries. Wickr and Frankly, on the other hand, are self-destructing messaging
apps.
While security
remains a primary concern, the nature of ephemeral apps has made it a popular
among younger users. In the future, we may see the feature built into existing
messaging services rather than just standalone apps.
Smartwatches
Apple Watch set to release in 2015, this is definitely
going to be one of the most watched trends for the upcoming year. Sure the
Apple Watch’s square design hasn’t appealed to a lot of hard core fans and yes
there are questions about whether the battery life of this smart wearable from
Apple will be up to the mark, but that hasn’t stopped it from being one of the
most awaited devices.
Cheaper 3D printing
3D printing which allows users “to print
three dimensional solid objects from a digital file” is a trend that will only
bigger from 2015 onwards.
Connected Homes and Cars
From Google’s I/O conference to the Apple WWDC 2014, the
smart home concept was definitely the most talked about this year, and it’s
likely that we will more on these two fronts from both Apple and Google.
Apple introduced
HomeKit during its annual developers conference this year and essentially the
app will allow users to connect their iPhone/iPad and control things like
garage doors, lights, security cameras, even thermostats and switches. Users
can just control these through Siri.
Cloud Computing
This basically allows centralised data
storage and computers can access this data. Clouds can be classified as public,
private or hybrid. Essentially cloud computing allows you to store data online
and access it whenever you need it.
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