Pervasive computing or computing everywhere?
Smartphones will continue to dominate the handset market as they grow in capability and increasingly become the centre of our ‘everything connected’ lifestyle with healthcare, home automation and connected car applications (just to name a few) sitting alongside traditional functions such as email.
Technology futurist and CEO of Market Clarity, Shara Evans, says this trend contains an element of risk for organisations that provide their employees with such devices or have a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy.
“[Companies] will need to take into account that a lot of highly personal data will reside on devices that are either owned by an enterprise or otherwise used for business purposes,” Evans says.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) will start to transition from being a “gee whiz, isn’t that cool” type of technology with little real-world application to a product that will really start to take hold. This will mainly be driven by the rapid emergence of industrial applications for AR in the form of both products and packaged services that utilise AR technology.
Wearable technology
Wearable computing is a technology that feeds into and out of the above trends. Smartwatches and fitness bands paired with smartphones are gaining traction with consumers as manufacturers come out with new models.
These products will make their way into enterprises as an extension of the ‘consumerisation of IT’. As so often happens, enterprises will eventually start to think of ways they can use the technology that their employees are already using to make their lives easier.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The IoT has already begun with heart-monitoring implants, vehicles with built-in sensors, smart thermostat systems and smart washing machines and dryers. You can expect this trend to continue throughout 2015 as more and more startups grow and established players try to get in on the action, either by buying new companies like Google did with Nest or doing their own R&D.
Internet-enabled cars
The integration of mobile operating systems that help drivers control their cars is already happening, and we can expect this trend to continue. In most cases, a device will replace the typical dashboard console. However, some auto manufacturers are taking a different approach, integrating SIM cards into their own smart dashboard console.
3D printing
While the ‘maker movement’ has been at the forefront of this technology, some of the world’s major manufacturing organisations are starting to see the possibilities offered by this technology. Evans predicts there will be an increasing number of commercial applications for 3D printing, including the production of high-value spare parts.
Privacy
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations are just the tip of the iceberg and the start of the conversation. For years, governments and corporations have been quietly collecting data on us as we go about our business on the internet.
Whether it’s governments listening in on private conversations or corporations aggressively targeting advertising using data mined from our email and search histories, we’re going to see a lot more talk about privacy issues as people start to care about how their digital footprints could be used against them.
Analytics
Big data is set to get even bigger. Pervasive computing, the IoT, wearable technology and internet-enabled cars are going to create a deluge of data that will fill corporate databases already overflowing with structured and unstructured data. Advanced analytics will be needed, as well as the ability to ask the right questions.
Cloud computing
For pervasive computing to reach its potential, it will need to be increasingly cloud based, with centrally coordinated applications able to serve up content to multiple devices simultaneously. Mobile-data costs are likely to remain high, so applications will need to be intelligent enough to use storage effectively to keep bandwidth costs in check for users.
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