It is a New Year, bringing with it new resolutions, and of course—new technology!  But will 2017 be the year where the most interesting budding tech becomes mainstream? No one knows for sure, but we can make some educated predictions on which technology trends will dominate the landscape.

Here is what you can expect to see more of in 2017.

Smart Home Tech & the Internet of Things

We’ve been hearing about the forthcoming revolution of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and resulting interconnectedness of smart home technology for years. So what’s the holdup? Why aren’t we all living in smart, connected homes by now? Part of the problem is too much competition, with not enough collaboration. There are tons of individual appliances and apps on the market, but few solutions to tie everything together into a single, seamless user experience. Now that bigger companies already well-versed in uniform user experiences (like Google, Amazon, and Apple) are getting involved, it is expected that we will see some major advancements this year.

AR and VR

There were some major advancements in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology in 2016. Oculus Rift was released, to positive reception, and thousands of VR apps and games followed. We also saw Pokémon Go, an AR game, explode with over 100 million downloads. The market is ready for AR and VR, and with Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will be selling VR headset for around $299 in 2017, we are confident that this is the year it will all take off. 

HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer are all listed as partners that will be selling the new VR headsets.

Machine Learning

Machine learning has taken some massive strides forward in the past few years, even emerging to assist and enhance Google’s core search engine algorithm. But it has only be used in a small range of applications. Throughout 2017 however, we expect to see machine learning entering a wide range of consumer applications, from offering better recommended products based on prior purchase history to gradually improving the user experience of an analytics app. Some machine learning you may already be familiar with is Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. They able to offer you song suggestions based on what they have determined you like and don’t like.  Imagine that on a broader scale in realms beyond music!

Automation

We have had robotic journalists in circulation for a couple of years now, and it won’t be long before they make another leap into more practical types of articles. But in 2017, it is likely that we will start seeing new types of automation, and as such productivity skyrocket in a number of professional services jobs (or start seeing some jobs disappear altogether). When automation is combined with machine learning, everything can improve even faster, so 2017 has the potential to be a truly landmark year.

Everything On-Demand

Thanks to brands like Uber (and the resulting madness of start-ups built on the premise of being the “Uber of the ____ industry”), people are getting used to having everything on demand via phone apps. In 2017, this will continue even further. We have thousands of apps available to us to get rides, food deliveries, and even a place to stay for the night, but soon we will see this develop into other (and perhaps stranger) arenas.

Technology, at its heart, it about improving our quality of life and finding new ways to enjoy it. With it we can expand our capabilities (and even basic human senses) to learn faster, feel more and communicate better. No matter which technology trends dominate in 2017, we are confident that they will usher in even more ideas for the following year.

2018 - we already can't wait!

Happy New Year from VTSL.

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