Tech Trends for the New Year
As the new year approaches, it’s time to take a look into the crystal ball and see what’s ahead for 2011 in terms of technology. The interesting thing about the coming year is that, as the economy recovers, tech in 2011 won’t be about the gadgets and will focus more on services and information exchange. Today we’ll look at an overview of some expected trends, many of which will be examined in more depth in this column this coming year.
While the focus will be away from gadgets this year, one type of gadget that looks like it will buck that trend is the mobile device. As more people go mobile for more than phone calls and e-mail, you should start to hear more about Windows-based smart phones, more iPad-like tablets hitting the market and an expected updated version of the iPad itself, with iPad 2 most likely to hit stores in April. The reason for the rise of mobile devices? Better apps (applications), online collaboration tools and greater options in cloud computing.
In the past, when programmers created apps for mobile devices, they either tried to shoe-horn big programs into a smaller version or create look-alikes that had less features. Newer versions, however, act more like a light version of the real programs, with most of the same features. Called hybrid web apps, these lighter apps make for an easy, seamless transition from the desktop to the mobile device – particularly for business programs such as Word or Excel.
Online collaboration is growing rapidly as 2010 closes out, and people aren’t just collaborating about work. One of the hot holiday trends this year has been group shopping and deal exchanges. Sites such as Groupon let users sign up for deals in their area. Once enough people sign-up, everyone who “pre-ordered” gets a discount. Other sites, like Yelp, offer reviews of area businesses. Of course, both sites offer apps for your phone so you can get reviews and deals on the go.
Another service that has been around for a while, but looks to pick up steam in 2011, is cloud computing. The cloud is basically the internet and in cloud computing, you use an application that runs over the internet as opposed to being installed on your PC. The advantage to this type of application is that it can be easily updated and there is usually either no fee or only a small fee passed on to the end user. You can typically buy more advanced features if you need them, but aren’t stuck paying for them if you won’t be using them. An example of cloud computing is the website Picnik, which provides photo editing tools similar to what you would get in Picasa.
Finally, internet video service looks like it is picking up at the end of 2010 and should continue to grow in 2011. New Smart TVs and Blu-Ray players that include the ability to connect to the internet to download programming are joining AppleTV, Roku, and NetFlix download boxes to bring the internet to the TV viewer.
While the focus will be away from gadgets this year, one type of gadget that looks like it will buck that trend is the mobile device. As more people go mobile for more than phone calls and e-mail, you should start to hear more about Windows-based smart phones, more iPad-like tablets hitting the market and an expected updated version of the iPad itself, with iPad 2 most likely to hit stores in April. The reason for the rise of mobile devices? Better apps (applications), online collaboration tools and greater options in cloud computing.
In the past, when programmers created apps for mobile devices, they either tried to shoe-horn big programs into a smaller version or create look-alikes that had less features. Newer versions, however, act more like a light version of the real programs, with most of the same features. Called hybrid web apps, these lighter apps make for an easy, seamless transition from the desktop to the mobile device – particularly for business programs such as Word or Excel.
Online collaboration is growing rapidly as 2010 closes out, and people aren’t just collaborating about work. One of the hot holiday trends this year has been group shopping and deal exchanges. Sites such as Groupon let users sign up for deals in their area. Once enough people sign-up, everyone who “pre-ordered” gets a discount. Other sites, like Yelp, offer reviews of area businesses. Of course, both sites offer apps for your phone so you can get reviews and deals on the go.
Another service that has been around for a while, but looks to pick up steam in 2011, is cloud computing. The cloud is basically the internet and in cloud computing, you use an application that runs over the internet as opposed to being installed on your PC. The advantage to this type of application is that it can be easily updated and there is usually either no fee or only a small fee passed on to the end user. You can typically buy more advanced features if you need them, but aren’t stuck paying for them if you won’t be using them. An example of cloud computing is the website Picnik, which provides photo editing tools similar to what you would get in Picasa.
Finally, internet video service looks like it is picking up at the end of 2010 and should continue to grow in 2011. New Smart TVs and Blu-Ray players that include the ability to connect to the internet to download programming are joining AppleTV, Roku, and NetFlix download boxes to bring the internet to the TV viewer.
- Laura N.
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