Latest Technology Trends – Upcoming Innovations

This week we bid farewell to 2018, a year that brought many exciting new technologies and innovations especially in the field of augmented and virtual reality which revolutionized the gaming, fashion, real estate industries, and many others. However, there were many other notable developments and 2019 looks just as promising, so let’s sum up the top technology trends of 2018 and then take a look at what 2019 has in store for us.

Top Technology Trends 2018

We already mentioned that a lot was achieved in 2018 in the sphere of AR and VR software development especially with many new headsets coming out this year such as HTC Vive, Oculus, PlayStation VR. However, perhaps the most important thing is that this year both AR and VR have gone mainstream and are now used by many companies to transform the way businesses interact with their customers. The use of VR and AR to provide a more customized experience is one of the retail technology trends that will continue into next year and beyond.

The rise of AR also heavily impacted mobile technology trends since there were so many new AR games that came out and all of them were very engaging an intuitive thanks to AR. However, we should mention that there are plenty of other ways mobile devices rely on AR technology to make our lives easier. For example, if your car breaks down in the middle of the road, you no longer have to read through the car manual to find out what the problem is. All you have to do is open a roadside assistant app, which overlays an AR diagram of your car’s engine over the physical engine and gives you step by step instructions on how to fix minor problems.

As far as wearable technology trends are concerned, in 2018 we noticed that these technologies are no longer simply an accessory to your smartphone, but rather became an experience itself. For example, previously a smartwatch could track your daily movement and provide you with some statistics at the end of the day. Now smartwatches can detect that you are not active enough and provide recommendations on how to move more. Also, if you have an illness that requires a certain amount of physical activity, the smartwatch can even put together walking or running route that will help you to overcome the necessary distance or burn calories.

2019 Technology Trends

The tech trends of 2019 will be somewhat different than the ones in 2018. The top 10 technology trends in 2019 will be:

• Autonomous things – Expect autonomy to be huge in 2019 especially on things such as artificial intelligence and the IoT. There will also be a race to achieve more autonomous, self-driving vehicles, but, at this point, it is not clear which areas i.e. air, land or sea will be impacted most.
• Augmented analytics – Even though we still have a lot of improvement to do, next year we will better understand the relationship between data preparation and the automated generation of insights in the fields of natural language processing and self-generated visualization.
• AI will continue to grow – Artificial intelligence allows applications to function across domains by providing the necessary services, and platforms to make it happen. According to Gardner, 40% of new application development will involve AI by 2022 which means that this technology is here to stay.
• Empowered edge – This trend means that computing will now reach much farther than the centralized facilities and reach the “edge” of the network where data can be stored, processed and displayed. If this trend is correct, the microservices architecture will be heavily used where certain functions of the apps can be sent to edge devices.
• Immersive experience – AR/VR technologies will continue to grow, with new technology 2019 that adds extra stimulus and sensors. Look for companies that offer products or services to enhance their offering to consumers with additional experiences based on AR/VR.
• Blockchain – The continued growth of blockchain is a safe bet and it will become more standardized and used across all industries in 2019.
• User privacy – This is a major question mark moving forward because we all love, for example, e-commerce, but it is underwritten by big data technology that collects user data to provide a more customized user experience. You can expect this issue of convenience vs. privacy to play out in 2019.
• Smart places – What we mean here is more sustainable cities, buildings, factories etc. Such smart places offer a high level of connectivity and integration while using fewer resources.
• Quantum computing – This trend should be approached with extreme caution once we may be one or two decades away from receiving tangible benefits from quantum computing. For those who find it interesting, it would be a good idea to track its developments on a quarterly basis.
• Application architectures – The days of monolithic architectures are over and they are yielding the way for microservices. Even though there are many monolithic architectures in large enterprises, the future of microservices seems bright since the cloud infrastructure implies this technology.

Going back to the point we made at the beginning, there were many achievements in 2018, but next year we are sure to see even more intuitive technologies to interact with on a daily basis. The growth in AI will provide even more immersive experience on the user’s end, while microservices and edge technology will be the engine that makes all these happen. Be sure to stay tuned to the latest trends and developments since, in today’s IT landscape, things change at a moments notice.