The average time-frame of tech disruption in our lives has significantly diminished and things are changing at a rapid scale. In a span of few years, gadgets such as MP3 players, compact digital cameras, scanners, CDs, fax machines and several others have more or less disappeared.
On the other hand, new-age technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), content streaming, automation, robotics and 5G have been growing in leaps and bounds to make our lives better.
Let’s take a look at five tech trends that are expected to explode in the decade that has just begun.
Quantum computing
Imagine a chip that can perform target computation in 200 seconds, which would otherwise take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.
A quantum computer can solve complex problems that would otherwise take billions of years for today’s computers to solve. This has massive implications for research in health care, energy, environmental systems, smart materials and more.
The team at Google AI has achieved sort of “quantum supremacy” with developing such chip — a new 54-qubit processor named ‘Sycamore’ that comprises fast, high-fidelity quantum logic gates in order to perform the benchmark testing.
Not just Google but several tech giants like Microsoft, IBM and Intel have joined the race to build a scalable quantum computer. IBM recently unveiled its quantum computer with 53 qubits.
The current bits in computers store information as either 1 or 0, thus limiting the potential to make sense when faced with gigantic volumes of data.
If all goes well, Microsoft is also confident about having one such scalable super machine within the next five years.
“We are looking at a five-year time-frame to build a quantum computer and what we need are roughly 100-200 good qubits with a low-error rate,” Krysta Svore, Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Quantum Computing, told IANS recently.
Microsoft has also partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee to conduct lectures on quantum computing for a full semester.
Self-driving ‘electric’ cars
The global revenues from “connected” cars — the precursor to fully-autonomous or self-driving cars — are growing at an annual rate of 27.5% and are expected to touch $21 billion by 2020.
Tesla helped create that market and remains an industry leader. The Elon Musk-run company surprised Wall Street by registering a profitable third quarter last year with a total revenue of $6.3 billion, riding on sales of its Model S, Model X and Model 3 electric cars.
Tesla is expected to deliver between 3,60,000 and 4,00,000 vehicles in 2019, representing a 45-65% growth.
Other automobiles expected to join Tesla sooner than later are Audi e-Tron Sportback, BMW iX3, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Mercedes EQC 400 4Matic, Porsche’s Taycan 4S, Volvo XC40 Recharge and Byton M-Byte SUV to name a few.
India is also planning to replace a significant portion of its conventional internal combustion engine fleet with electric vehicles in the next decade, particularly with the aim of reducing pollution and also to create jobs.
5G-connected homes
With 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices expected to be in place by 2025, the world is on the cusp of experiencing a technology that will change the way live today.
Being able to download a full-length HD movie in seconds and share your wow-moments with friends — that’s just the beginning. Commercial 5G networks are starting to go live across the world.
With 5G commercial networks being switched on, the first use cases are enhanced mobile broadband, which will bring better experiences for smartphone users with 100 times faster data and fixed wireless access.
5G services have already begun in the US, South Korea and some European countries, including Switzerland, Finland and the UK. CSPs in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have announced plans to accelerate 5G network building through 2020.
Voice as a new interface
Voice is slowly becoming the new human-compute interface, and India too is set are finally going to leverage voice to interact with the devices and digitally control their lives.
Alexa, Google Home, Siri and others are changing the way we interact with devices and the next decade will see digital assistants becoming all-pervasive.
According to Adam Berns, Director of Business Development, Alexa Voice Service (AVS) at Amazon, India is now ready for voice as a core experience.
“Today, voice is powering several devices — PCs, wearables, smartphones, car accessories and smart home devices — helping people streamline their lives. I firmly believe that voice is the next interface with computing, and Amazon with its Alexa offerings is here to change the world,” Berns told IANS recently.
Internet TV 24/7
An over-the-top (OTT) viewer in India is spending approximately 70 minutes a day on video-streaming platforms, with a consumption frequency of 12.5 times a week, according to a recent Eros Now-KPMG report.
In India, the Internet video traffic is projected to reach 13.5 Exabytes (EB) per month by 2022 — up from 1.5 EB a month in 2017 — with video contributing 77% of all Internet traffic by 2022.
“Unlike the common thought that urbanites are watching more content online, 65% video consumption is coming from rural parts of the country, thanks to cheap data plans, especially from Reliance Jio, and affordable smartphones. Those who cannot afford to buy a smart, connected TV are now streaming OTT content on phones,” TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum (BIF) says.
There are currently more than 32 online content and video-streaming platforms in the country and the market is expected to hit $5 billion by 2023, according to the global management-consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Soon, you may see many ditching set-top boxes as data becomes cheaper and Internet TV takes over our drawing rooms.
