My 5 predictions for the tech world in 2015 and the next 5 years; Sensors, Indoor Location, Alternative networks, Wearable computers, the demise of cable TV.
Billions of sensors will monitor everything, and become the next platform shift in computing. Your home, car, office, and even people will have special sensors that help us manage the complexities of life.
Indoor Location and Positioning, enabled by Smartphones, will become a part of many existing apps, and enable new services. Think about how web maps started as a standalone application and were later embedded into all sorts of web sites. The same will happen for Indoor Location on mobile apps.
Alternative network for Internet of Things (IoT) will be required to realize the full potential of IoT. Those billions of sensors will require a low cost network to transmit data to the Internet. Wifi is only useful within 100 feet, and cell data plans are too expensive for tiny inexpensive sensors. A new form of low cost, meshed network, will be built to enable the IoT.
Wearable computers integrated with Smartphones to enable the "Quantified Self". Google Glass got people thinking about how wearables could be used. Android Wear watches will eventually do everything your Smartphone can do, and much more. Wearable computers will contain sensors to monitor your body, health, and environment. They will connect to your Smartphone for computing power and network connection.
Cable TV will lose its stranglehold on subscribers as more content creators go direct to consumer. This year we saw HBO, Netflix, CBS, Hulu, NFL offer stand alone web/mobile subscriptions for their content. The "cord cutters" and "cord nevers" already get all the content they want without a cable TV contract. Cable TV will lose lots of subscribers as more sports and entertainment producers offer their content direct over the Internet for a low monthly subscription.
Five years ago I wrote this post on predictions for 2010 and beyond. Pretty accurate so far. How will I do on these 5 predictions for 2015? Time will tell, but I feel pretty good about them now.
Happy New Year!
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