In technology, this was considered a decade of smartphones. Back in 2009, Symbian was known to be the prevailing 'smartphone' OS. However, in 2010 was the launch of the iPhone 4, the Nexus One, and the Samsung Galaxy S. Today, iOS and Android boast 4 billion joint active devices. More so, smartphones, including their apps, are now considered a mature market, rather than a disturbing new platform. Thus, the big question now, as the year is about to end and another new one is coming: What are the next big things in technology? Are they still the same operating systems and devices?
If one is to analyze the trend in technology for the last decade or two, the questions presuppose that there must be something big to come next. It may seem so because, over the past three decades or more, we all have lived through 3 enormous, overlapping, and above all, world-changing shifts in a technology platform, and these are the smartphones, the Internet, and computers. So now, again, what could be the 4th and the next big things in technology?
Why the Next Big Things have not Yet Been Determined
In this tech era, the development of new gadgets and devices is never-ending. Certainly, there are numerous products in the line-up which have been nominated for the past few years. Among them are drones, chatbots, AR/VR, the Internet of Things, blockchains, and self-driving cars. There may have been a lot of them, but according to tech reviewers and experts, each of the tech gadgets and devices mentioned has fallen short of positive forecasts. There must be a reason for this.
It may be recalled that the growth of smartphones, the Internet, and PCs did not look unstable or faltering. In connection to this, a list of Internet users from 1995 to 1998 has reached 147 million from 16 million respectively. Then, as for the list of smartphone sales from 2009, Android had gone from sub-1 million units to more than 80 million in just three years. This, indeed, was how the main platform might appear to be.
What Really are the Next Best Things?
It is important to know even just the basics of the products mentioned as the nominated for the next best things in technology. For instance, back in 2015, the AR/VR, the 27% yearly growth rate is exceptional, but, according to tech reports, "a consistent 27% growth rate is more than a little worrying for an apparently next big thing." Tech experts say it is quite a long way from "10xing in 3 years." For blockchains, Bitcoins may be doing fine and is simply the most interesting thing that ever happened in technology back in the 2010s.
However, towards the end of this year, it seems that enterprise blockchains would remarkably be dead. But unfortunately, what was considered the future before like Microsoft's Tay, for one, now no longer exists. The Internet of Things does not have any clear information, as well, in terms of its success in technology today and the future. Even drones are a long way from becoming physical packet-switched systems. Lastly, self-driving cars are promising so much more and, tech news has it that, about 10 million self-driving cars are set to be on the road by 2020. We have yet to wait for the New Year to come to find out if the number is real.
