Group buying, geolocation apps, tablets, mobile payment, crowdfunding, mobile photo sharing, and cloud based productivity apps were some of the trends that marked 2011. There were definitely lots of exciting technology innovations to follow. Let’s see what’s ahead in 2012:
There are more and more sites out there helping you sell everything you could imagine and make some money out of it. To be more precise, there are number of companies selling your idea and giving you a tiny slice for each sale, or when the sales reach a certain threshold.
“Sites like RedBubble do everything for the artist; all they need to do is upload the content. RedBubble will, for example, make the T-Shirt with your art, sell it for you, manage the distribution and, of course, collect payment. The site lets you set the price above their fixed price. Yes, you could add as much as you want onto a $16 T-shirt, but most smart sellers know this means they won’t sell a single garment. Instead, you add 1%-to-5% (maybe 10% if you’re feeling strong) and then promote the dickens out of your product on the site and through various social networks. RedBubble is just one of many destinations popping up to help the aspiring entrepreneur. They join established platforms like Lulu (self-publish books), and YouTube. YouTube has been inviting videographers into the commerce tent for years, letting them add AdSense accounts to popular videos and then sitting back and watching the pennies roll in”, writes Mashable.
2. Video eyewear:
Personal video is definitely another hot trend to watch out in 2012. “Glasses or, more frequently, goggles equipped with tiny video screens mounted inside so you can watch movies all by yourself. The small screens are mounted so close to your eyes, you see them as one giant screen floating in front of your face”, writes Stewart Wolpin. Moreover, he draws attention to a company called Nabes as on of the players in this industry that might make a breakthrough with its video eyewear product.
“Nabes is creating a small video screen mount that clip inside custom designer sunglasses. In other words, wearing Nabes’ contraption is no worse aesthetically than wearing normal (albeit large) sunglasses with headphone wires streaming from it and a cable trailing to your smart phone, tablet or other video source. Plus, you can still spy what’s happening around you”, writes Wolpin. Follow this link to check out Nabes in action!
3. Optical – disc drives disappear from new laptops :
Faster wireless will surely change the way laptops look. The ability to download movies wherever you are in just a few minutes, or to access photos and all other online information from any network connection will definitely make optical disc drives disappear from new laptops. “In 2012, regular-size laptops will be able to ditch their disc drives—and even many of their ports—without losing too much functionality. MacBook Airs don’t include optical drives, and larger MacBooks will likely follow suit this year. Laptops from other manufacturers, such as Asus, Dell, and Toshiba, will join the trend. Of course, some laptops will retain drives, but in 2012 new laptops with optical-disc drives will become harder to find”, writes PCWorld.
4. Voice control:
Surely voice control has been around for year but not the way we experience now. “The novelty of Siri on the iPhone 4S — which allows you to send texts, create reminders, search the Web and much more using just your voice — may be the start of a new trend in voice controlled devices. Siri and its ilk define a new era in which we talk, and our devices understand — often on the first attempt. Other device makers will likely follow suit. What’s more, Apple may use voice control to replace the TV remote”, writes Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, for CNN.
5. The continued rise of Facebook as a platform:
Want a Spotify account or Turntable.fm? Well you need a Facebook account first. “The trend makes sense for social networks: With 800 million people already on Facebook, its growth is bound to slow. But if sharing becomes automatic, the volume of content on Facebook will grow at an accelerated pace”, explains Cashmore. Moreover, “look for more companies to implement this in 2012, including some big names like Netflix (after an act of Congress amends a dated law that prohibits the sharing of video rental activity without written consent). Facebook, like it or not, is becoming a platform for more and more facets of our online and offline lives”, writes Mark W. Smith, web editor and technology columnist for the Detroit Free Press.
6. Mobile chip wars:
According to Mashable, 2012 is predicted to be defined by an intense battle on a micro scale. “With ARM-based CPUs in virtually all of today’s tablets and handsets, Intel, the dominant system CPU manufacturer, has no presence in the mobile space. It’s a situation the company promises to change in 2012 with Medfield—its rethinking of the Atom CPU (popular in netbooks). Meanwhile a consortium of Pacific Rim manufacturers have just banded together to produce new mobile CPUs for phones and tablets.
These efforts may not mean much, though, as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Motorola, Marvell, Nvidia and others all license the ARM architecture and show (along with the hardware partners) little interest in switching to a new or once-established platform. Even Microsoft is developing Windows 8 to run on ARM-based CPUs in addition to traditional Wintel machines”, writes Mashable.
Another trend that is said to mark 2012 is the so called “second-screen experiences”. What is this? “It is a buzz-phase among TV and movie execs these days. It refers to apps (mainly on the iPad) that listen to the audio output of your TV and display content related to the show or movie you’re watching. The chances are that you already use your tablet computer or phone while watching TV, so there’s ample opportunity to make the viewing experience a more interactive one.
Let’s see if these 7 movements will define the following year. Any other trends you think will mark 2012?