Tech and Trends:- Technology in many ways is a lot like fashion in the sense that things go through phases of being cool before dropping off the radar completely. Whether it’s a mobile app that becomes a top-seller for a few months, captivating everybody with a smartphone or a specific piece of software that becomes the ‘must download’ bit of kit to help you to boost your productivity. We all jump on the bandwagon before forgetting about it almost overnight because of a new ‘next big thing.’
In recent months, we’ve seen the likes of the Windows Phone become popular, especially with the recent release of Cortana – the Microsoft rival for Apple’s Siri voice recognition system – in the US, and soon the rest of the world. We’ve also seen a lot of companies investing more and more into cloud services like those offered by Databax, DropBox, Google Drive and other forms of virtual storage in an attempt to improve security since the iCloud hacks earlier this year.
As we approach Christmas, it’s highly anticipated that technology and gadgets will be among the most popular sales with a variety of new laptops, tablets and toys on sale all with their own appeals to specific audiences. We’ve no idea what is likely to be the biggest seller, but you can almost guarantee that the likes of Apple, Microsoft and alike won’t be struggling for cash in the New Year – especially after the crazy Black Friday and Cyber Monday events recently.
Monday 8th December 2014, probably better known as Cyber Monday, was a bumper day for UK retailers in particular who racked up a combined £666 million in sales for items put on a one-day only offer ahead of the big Christmas push; but even that was nothing compared to the events 72 hours previously. Black Friday in the United Kingdom has never been as popular as it is in the States, but this year it was crazy.
Shops and 24-hour supermarkets were forced to close by police because of the incredible scenes involving people fighting and stampeding towards items which had been reduced including televisions and laptops, with people queuing outside for hours ahead of the opening times to ensure they got their tech at a reduced price – even if they didn’t really need them (there were examples of people saying they bought things just because they were reduced into their price range). Stores revealed they made a combined £720 million in sales on this day despite many large retailers being forced to shut their doors.
In 2015, we’re likely to see a lot more technological developments and released which have customers camping out overnight, many of which haven’t even been invented yet but it’s worth taking a look at some of the most anticipated releases and the top tips for what’s going to be big in 2015:
Wearable Tech
We’ve been talking about wearable tech for some time now with smart watches and fitness apps proving to be among the most-talked about gadgets in recent times, but the release of the Apple Watch (strangely not named as the iWatch when it was announced earlier this year) predicted to be among the biggest selling items in 2015. Health and fitness gadgets like the FitBit are also expected to be popular especially in the early months as people look to pursue their fitness kicks in the New Year.
The photo and video sharing platform is now owned by Facebook and it’s no surprise that it’s now expanding rapidly. In the past twelve months the app has had more than 100 million new sign ups and is now officially more widely used than Twitter with more than 300 million registered users uploading and sharing visual content, and this is likely to continue into 2015 with more and more people now able to create, edit and share images and videos on the web – which will be helped by wearable technology.
