Electronics, digital, and mobile will see exciting advances in 2012, leading to serious and important trends that will be usable by both businesses and consumers in the growing technology-enhanced world.
Among the most significant that we will see next year are the following:
• Augmented reality – Though this technology has already taken its first baby steps into the mobile world, being seen in location apps, games, coffee shops, and even business cards, this year it is expected to start making a place in everything from eyeglasses to cars and other vehicles. Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) is expected to grow exponentially throughout the year to give smartphone users an enhanced view of their world.
• Mobile micro payments – manufacturers of apps and mobile optimized websites allow businesses to make money by selling very small products and incremental upgrades.
• Introduction of the Ultrabook – the PC is far from being dead, but it is about to experience a serious evolution that allows it to combine its features with those of tablets. The term was coined by Intel, and it describes an extremely light and thin yet powerful form of laptop that doesn’t have apps or a touch screen, but will include tablet-associated features such as an HD camera.
• Social media plateau – in 2012, Facebook should reach and surpass the 1 billion user mark, but in the United States, it is believed that its numbers have essentially flattened out. It is Twitter that is still continuing to grow, with as many as 450 million users, though there is no way to tell how many of those users are actually active ones. While Google+ is still on a steady climb, it remains far behind the two leading social networks and the majority of people don’t even know that it exists.