Technological innovation is moving at an increasing rate, and we’ve seen some major developments take place already throughout 2020. From the Smartphone to the Smart Home, technology has now permeated almost every area of our daily lives and in some instances, we’d be lost without it.
The ability to work from home in an online capacity, for example, is entirely dependent on having suitable hardware and internet connectivity, and where would we be without regular Zoom or Skype calls to friends and loved ones in faraway places?
Technology and our reliance on it aren’t going to diminish any time soon. In fact, according to IDC, global annual spending on technology and associated services is set to reach as much as $2.3 trillion by the end of the year. So, with all this in mind, what are the top technology trends happening right now in 2020?
Edge Computing
If the last decade was all about embracing the power of cloud computing, with services like DropBox and Google Cloud streamlining the organization of data for consumers and organizations alike, this decade is moving further towards edge computing.
This latest trend in digital computing essentially looks to minimize the number of processes involved in the cloud, and instead move them to a more local place, such as IoT devices, a user’s computer, or specialized edge services (the “edge” of the network). The theory behind it is that edge computing will reduce the amount of long-distance communication that happens between a server and its client, thereby reducing latency and bandwidth use.
Currently, there’s an increase in demand for the processing power of edge computing, with the incorporation of sensors and AI models providing the power necessary to host new applications.
More and more nanotech companies are developing products to handle this increased demand, including AI chips, which are said to mimic the structure of the human brain to process increasingly complex algorithms.
Online Gaming
The online gaming industry is emerging as one of the most dominant tech trends this year, as gamers across the globe have generated a surge in the use of both online and mobile games. The industry itself is huge, including everything from on the go puzzle games like Candy Crush to platforms like PokerStars Casino with its numerous online slots games, and is currently predicted to generate just under $2 billion in revenue by 2022.
Gaming innovation is bringing forth a new era in home entertainment, one that isn’t limited to geographic location, economic background, or age and gender. With 5G almost upon us, mobile gaming is quickly slipping ahead to the front of the pack to lead the way in online gaming in 2020. Consumers can’t get enough of gaming go the go: over 2.6 billion people across the globe regularly play mobile games, and the sector itself is already valued at over $70 billion.
Augmented Reality
Although advanced tech has been hanging around the fringes of tech industries for a while, it was 2016’s genre-defining Pokemon Go that truly ushered Augmented Reality into the public consciousness. Now in 2020, it’s about to become even more mainstream and could soon be an everyday experience for consumers. Much more accessible than its cousin Virtual Reality, AR is a more realistic form of advanced tech and has less of those dystopian ‘Black Mirror’ connotations making seamless integration into tasks like browsing the web, website navigation, and content sharing a distinct possibility.
Longstanding tech pioneers Apple is leading the charge, with full integration of AR into its iOS operating system now in full effect. Meanwhile, Google has announced that in the “near future” it plans to only show 3D models in product searches instead of a standard image on mobile devices. And Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, has successfully received financing to launch Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which is set to be the very first Massive Multiplayer Game to be entirely playable in AR.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Blockchain tech and decentralized currencies have certainly been around for a few years now, but DLT (distributed ledger technologies) in particular have been slow to be deployed due to underlying issues within the technology. However, in 2020 the technology is becoming much more practical, with industries beginning to wake up to blockchain’s potential to increase transparency and generate a higher value exchange throughout business ecosystems.
One current blockchain trend is focused on its potential in identity management. Smart contracts, for example, can be programmed into a ledger and events can be triggered by actions, such as releasing payment when goods/services have been received. There may be some issues with enterprise-level scalability in blockchain’s current incarnation, however, more widespread integration of complementary technologies like the IoT will likely spur further growth for enterprise blockchain.