While 2014 was a great year for technology, this year promises more excitement
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| Gionee |
A FEW CONFESSIONS on what I believe has been a strange internal conflict
for the last few days. By the time you read this, I’ll be on an aircraft
to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015. Thus, like it
always is, this should have been a curtain raiser for that incredible
technology show. It’s not! Also, by the time you read this, 2014 will be
but a memory. So, like I always do, I should have written a ‘Best and
Worst of 2014’ a week before. I didn’t!
THE OTHER PLAYER In terms of smartphones, Gionee’s next flagship could be a game changer
2014 was a great year in technology. Online versus offline gadget
retailing became a pitched battle, top-end hardware at rock-bottom
pricing became a way of marketing, wearable technology went from the
most hyped to the least bought, tablets became a serious headache for
manufactures and retailers, laptops made an unexpected but very welcome
comeback, smartwatches became the dumbest purchase decision, virtual
reality became fun and also got itself a fun name (faceputers), and
pretty much all things promised were actually delivered. Thus doing a
round-up of what I’d written about every single week seemed like an
exercise in futility. And I will report on CES 2015 in detail in the
next two weeks anyway, so why waste a whole curtain raiser on it? What I
really want to do with the coming of this new year is break away from
all this typical cliché tech round-up writing that is being done all
around us. How about a real look at some technology and some gadgets
that will truly change our lives this year?
TOP GADGETS TO WAIT FOR IN 2015
Windows 10 may not be a gadget but this all-new OS could well be the
reason why some really cool gadgets come out in 2015. The new Microsoft
Surface could be the best hybrid implementation (if finally Microsoft
gets the price right and finally releases it in India), the Oculus Rift
will move from a developer product to a consumer one and it’s going to
be a doozy, and the Samsung Gear VR may well be the other big one here.
The new Apple Watch will move to reality and should revive the
almost-defunct smartwatch category. And, at least one company will come
out with a fully-flexible screen device. The hype and buzz around Google
Glass will go lower and Google Glass 2 may get a tepid response. The
Apple iPad series will get another update but the excitement around it
will be at an all-time low. Also, Apple’s iTV (a TV screen) won’t come
out in 2015 either and there may well never be an iTV ever.
TOP SMARTPHONES TO LOOK FOR IN 2015
The smartphone category is such a critical category that it
deserves its own space. The usual suspects will fire their usual
missiles (the next iPhones, Samsung Notes, HTC Ones, Sony Xperia Zs, LG G
series and a whole lot more of those typical flagships). Samsung will
arrive with a back-to-the-drawing-board, all-new Galaxy S phone (which
has to be a radically new phone, else it’s all over for this series).
But the real excitement will come from other players. Gionee’s next
flagship could be a game changer. Micromax, with its all-new brand Yu,
could redraw some new lines in the mobile phone market. Xiaomi will up
its game and its way of selling and OnePlus Two could make most
established brands very, very nervous. Google’s Android One may become
the catalyst to fuel the next half billion smartphones sold with many
new product launches and Spice and Celkon seem best poised to take this
forward. Battery life will be the biggest USP of all phones in 2015.
Phablets will be the mobile revolution catalysts - they will kill
feature phones on one side and tablets on the other.
TOP TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015
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| 3d printer |
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| Google
Glass |
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| apple watch |
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| battery powered car |
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| samsung gear vr |
The Internet of Things may be a horribly convoluted phrase but in
2015, you’ll start using many gadgets that will make that happen. It’s
estimated that by 2018, more than 50 billion devices will talk to each
other without human intervention and 2015 will see the start of that.
Other things that will reach potential will be 3D printers (huge drop in
price, will become very easy to use), fast high-speed data and net
neutrality (the launch of 4G LTE will make 3G a mass-usage product;
charging more for Skype or Viber will get shot down [sorry, Airtel]),
and Big Data (all our devices will generate more personal data and thus
those who can analyse it all will rule). India and China will dominate
because of huge domestic demands, huge production within and new
investments and acquisitions. Things that won’t hit pay dirt this year
will be robots and artificial intelligence; that’s in 2017. Wearable
tech will show signs of revival but will need another year to truly
fire. Battery-powered cars will move to mainstream, Tesla Model S
leading the way. 4K TVs, laptops and tablets will get a big boost as 4K
media and content will finally appear.
2015 comes with great promise of a great bounty. And whether it
will live up to all the expectation will get tested on the floors of CES
2015. The proof of that pudding will start next week, right here.
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