Tech Predictions can come true!
The beginning of the year is a time when business tech predictions begin to bubble up in people’s minds. Seems yesterday only we were just entering this 21st century. Now we are close to completing the second decade and 2020 no longer looms, but is around the corner. Very close!
People in the past have predicted events and ideas. And while not with 100% accuracy, we are generally willing to grant the missing or inaccurate detail here and there because of the striking resemblance to what we know. The desire to know the future is that strong! And curiously, many of the future events predicted are tech predictions.
So what are the tech predictions slated for 2015?To set the stage, here are interesting tech predictions of 100 years ago from an article titled, Futurists were right: 10 predictions made by Sci-Fi writers that came true. The four tech predictions below will give a feel for the marvel of anyone getting even close when predicting the future. And these are close!
- 1888 Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward, predicted that people would have cards that would allow them to purchase items on credit without money exchanging hands from a centralized bank.
- 1911 Hugo Gemsbach’s serial story, Ralph 124c 41+ described a device he called a telephot as enabling two people to have eye contact while speaking across long distances. Facetime is a reality now from laptops to cell phones.
- 1949 George Orwell’s, 1984, described a state in which the dichtocrats monitored the people through an interconnected web of security cameras. Today we welcome the video surveillance that is prevalent everywhere as a part of public security without even noticing them. We lack only Big Brother.
- 1969 John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, describes life in America 2010 with interesting elements: President Obomi, random acts of violence including school shootings & terrorist attacks, cars powered by electric rechargeable fuel cells, marriage giving way to short-term, low commitment hook-ups.
HP provides some Hits & Misses, 2014, in their Technology at Work. They provide interesting recent tech predictions from their technology team which more or less came about during the past year. Those business trends relating to tech predictions are especially helpful:
- SMB’s will be more mobile – 94 percent of small businesses use smartphones to conduct day-to-day business, up from 85 percent in 2013. Over 50 percent of small businesses use mobile apps.
- Businesses using video – Video is being more widely used for marketing purposes, with at least 50 percent of small businesses using YouTube to promote awareness. Images and videos can be shared quickly on social media apps to show how real people use your products.
- Big Data in Small Business – Most businesses know there are major benefits to using Big Data, but capturing the sheer amount of information and figuring out just how to use it remains intimidating for most. It can also be expensive.
- Use of the Cloud – The growing trend of small businesses taking advantage of cloud offerings is expected to continue. According to a recent survey, 37 percent of small businesses are currently using the cloud, a number expected to jump to nearly 80 percent by 2020.
- Virtual Payment Methods – A few small businesses are venturing into payment alternatives like Google Wallet, but for the most part, credit card payments or cash are still most common. Mobile payment solutions like tap-and-go systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in small businesses like food trucks and farmers’ markets where traditional registers are not practical.
Finally, reaching out to 2020, the tech predictions below were selected from a longer list that endeavors to describe life after the next five years. These statements are brief because no one really knows, so the less said the better.
- World oil crisis – currently shaping up as a semi-tech prediction
- Generation X is reshaping global politics
- Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide
- The 5G standard is released
- Texting by thinking
- Progress with longevity extension
- Genetically engineered “super” bananas
- Holographic TV is going mainstream
- The first self-sufficient, car-free city in mainland China
- 30,000 drones are patrolling the skies of America
Many of these tech predictions are works in progress so that the prediction is more of a guess as to the final conclusion. Read our article, Innovation Motivators, highlighting trends in the tech world that, if successful, will be disruptive to the way we currently are doing things. Changes so big that life won’t be the same. Like carrying a mobile phone 24×7. Didn’t see that coming in 1995!
We make tech predictions because there is in humanity an insatiable longing to know what’s going to happen. So we work at interpreting and interpolating, even making stuff up. Hoping that “predicting” it, will make it happen. Sometimes we are right, and being right is so satisfying that we willingly forget the many times we were off base.