Forbes Technology Council quotes Dr. Jose Morey in recent article "15 Buzzworthy Consumer Tech Trends We'll See In The Near Future "
15 Buzzworthy Consumer Tech Trends We'll See In The Near Future
POST WRITTEN BY
Expert Panel, Forbes Technology Council
Fall is officially here, which means the holidays are right around the corner. In the tech world, this means that announcements and advertisements for the latest gadgets will soon dominate media headlines and trends, and e-commerce companies are gearing up to handle the rush of traffic headed to their websites.
Consumers are always eager to learn which technologies will make a splash in an upcoming holiday season, while e-commerce and tech pros are looking for trends and tech to keep their services running smoothly and remaining popular with users. Below, 15 Forbes Technology Council members share some key consumer tech trends to look out for over the next couple of months.
1. Application Performance Monitoring
The holiday season means extensive shopping, which means thousands of people logging on to e-commerce websites to make the most of holiday-season sales. Performance testing of these websites is business-critical and makes one of the hottest technology areas. Application Performance Monitoring (APM) is one of the very critical functions to ensure the experience during the purchase cycle remains seamless. - Srinivas Arasada,Evolutyz Corp.
2. Connected Mirrors
Soon, interactive mirrors with facial and gesture recognition will likely disrupt ordinary exercise, health and beauty routines. New models of connected mirrors are optimized with machine learning technology and are designed to seamlessly interact with consumers, much like a visual conversation. However, these mirrors will collect a lot of data and likely require a third-party data connection. - Sanjay Malhotra, Clearbridge Mobile
3. Hydroponic Gardens
As consumers, we are immersed in technology whether we like it or not. With connected-everything overwhelming us, this holiday season will be fraught with those wanting to get back to a semblance of simplicity. For example, I can see hydroponic lettuce gardens becoming the “tech garden” it-gift of the holiday buying season this year. - Juliette Rizkallah, SailPoint
4. 3D Printing Technology
By far the most interesting consumer tech we will see in the near future is 3D printing technology. Use cases for 3D printing have expanded from simple auto parts to full and futuristic vehicles! While 3D-printed prosthetics are life-changing in today’s medical world, imagine life-saving applications like 3D-printed organs. - Neha Sampat, Contentstack
5. Artificial Intelligence Robots
AI robots will be a big attraction this holiday season. They will be in most of the household appliances, making them “smart.” AI-driven tools will let you control your house while you are away. Robots will communicate with each other. The battle over the privacy and ethics of AI may reach its peak during the holiday season. While the AI hype will be high, the functional use of AI will remain low. - Sandeep Shilawat, ManTech
6. Mobile Payment Apps
It’s taken a while for them to catch on, but we’ll see increasing interest in mobile payments. Apps like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are not only convenient, they offer the benefit of two-factor authentication for security. The user must first unlock the device, then provide another form of authentication, such as a fingerprint or facial scan (so-called “selfie pay”) to complete a purchase. - Monica Eaton-Cardone, Chargebacks911
7. Data Collection Shields
Alexa, Siri, Facebook, Google and Echo all have one thing in common: They’re “free” services. If they listen for your commands, they have to listen to everything in order to hear what is directed to them and what is not. The buzz will be how much is actually being collected and recorded—not to mention who has access to it. Anti-data collection tech will be the new “in” thing. - Wayne Lonstein, VFT Solutions, Inc.
8. Rent-To-Own Platforms
Rent-to-own is going to become the next two-day shipping. Services like Ownable are already seeing a massive peak in consumer behavior through their rent-to-own platforms, and companies are adopting this new payment method eagerly. This prediction lies in data: The cost of living continues to increase, the minimum wage isn’t rising in correlation and new tariffs will change consumer habits. - Ben Lee, Rootstrap
9. Virtual And Augmented Shopping Experiences
As retail shifts to mobile and online from physical and products increasingly become more tailored and bespoke, brands’ experiences will need to continue to push the envelope on individualization. To meet this need, I expect virtual storefronts, kiosks and shopping experiences driven by advances in augmented and virtual reality. - Sayer Martin,Conga
10. Connected Products
Companies are looking for ways to embed their products into your digital life. Connecting them to digital services you use every day is how everyday products become more useful, essential or just more fun to use. Oticon makes a hearing aid that is now connected to your TV, phone, device, lights and more. Connectivity makes an essential product like a hearing aid even more so. - Chris Kibarian, IFTTT
11. Fully Immersive Virtual Travel
In the near future, you’ll be able to put on your eye-vision-like virtual reality headset and travel anywhere in the world and believe you’re actually there—fully immersed! This will be done with better internet speed (5G), better 360 cameras (live streaming in at least 16K), and better VR headsets (both in eye-like quality and field of vision). - Dani Arnaout, Abstract Layer
12. Advanced Digital Assistant Apps
Greater utilization of digital assistants will continue to proliferate as chatbots, ML/AI and next-gen natural language processing mature and evolve into consumer applications. This will not only cause greater market penetration for the usual hardware providers but will also generate bespoke applications for assistants in new industries from travel to healthcare. - José Morey, Liberty BioSecurity
13. Sleep Tools
Mentally, physically and emotionally, sleep has a huge impact on the body and the brain. If you can monitor your sleep, you can identify and optimize your personal sleep patterns. Two tools that have helped me this year are the Oura ring, which provides a sleep score, and the Chilipad (a mat that controls bed temperature). - Rachelle Palmer, MongoDB
14. Mixed Reality
With the new immersive technology and easy-to-wear AR/VR gears, new-age products will enable individuals to deliver a 24/7 experience of living in virtual reality with virtual layers even in their current reality. For some, this will be exciting, but for others, it will turn out very confusing and challenging to live with others. - Parag Arora, Glowing, Inc.
15. 5G
5G and its various derivative technologies are going to be the talk of the town this holiday season. This is the first game-changing infrastructure and IT development in decades, and its impact on consumers’ lives will be big. It’s also going to keep tech teams busy for years to come! - Abhinav Somani,LEVERTON