2015 has been an amazing year for Tech. As Apple releases their long awaited Apple Watch, and VR Devices begin to catch on, what do I expect to be trending in 2016?
Virtual Reality
Mark Zuckerberg saw the future when he acquired Oculus Rift in 2014 for $2 billion. Before Oculus Rift there was not much talk about virtual reality, and any devices that did support VR, was extremely bulky and took up the size of a fridge, but Oculus Rift was the trend setter proving that we could take VR, shrink it down and begin to mass market it. Many companies begin catching onto the VR trend. According to CB Insights, In the first nine months of this year, virtual and augmented reality companies raised a total of $408 million, up from $145 million during the first nine months of 2014.
This year alone we witnessed the amazing Magic Leap “commercials” that look like something out of an Iron Man movie, as well as Google’s “cardboard” which is basically a cardboard box designed to turn your smart phone into a VR device. With Oculus Rift released in the first Quarter of 2016, its obvious Virtual Reality will be the top trending tech of 2016.
Artificial Intelligence
Yes Siri has been around for years but with the continuous advancement of technology, AI seems to be the way to go. Tesla gave a big update this year in their Model S which allow Semi-Autonomous driving, and Google has been continuously testing their self driving Google Car 2016 might be the year when news on AI appears every days. According to Business Insider “The Pentagon’s fiscal 2017 budget request will include $12 billion to $15 billion to fund war gaming, experimentation and the demonstration of new technologies aimed at ensuring a continued military edge over China and Russia”. It seems that AI might surely be taking a turn towards the Terminator. So in 2016 there a huge debate and ethics talk on just how far we push AI. As Elon Musk mentioned when he started openAI (a non-profit company dedicated to advancing the science and ethics of artificial intelligence), humanity has taken their place as the dominant species on Earth because of our intelligence, and by making AI smarter than Humanity we might just lose that spot (I’m paraphrasing of course).
Wearables
Apple is probably releasing their 2nd generation watches next year, and with that comes more competition in the Wearable tech space. What’s next? Google glass sorta failed, Apple watch did not get as much reception as it liked. Are people just not ready to turn into cyborgs? Only time will tell, but I think wearables will have another shot at making the headlines in 2016
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