As the end of every year rolls around, we get the inevitable tech predictions of what will happen next year, and Samsung has produced its own list of trends which it sees dominating in 2015 (and indeed beyond).
Samsung makes five predictions in total, and the first is that wearable tech will create a "new era of power dressing" for business leaders. So we’re talking smart shoulder pads, right? Wrong. This simply refers to the fact that business folks will use wearables to become more organized and productive, starting with smartwatches.
Wearables will become the norm in offices through 2015, and while Samsung certainly has a vested interest in this happening, this is what a lot of analysts are predicting -- and particularly the rise of the smartwatch, which has hitherto seen relatively little adoption compared to fitness wristbands (the main wearable of the moment).
Roger Enright, product director, IT & Mobile Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, commented: "2014 has been the year that the wearables market has really exploded and broken into the mainstream consciousness. Our own research, commissioned this September with the Centre for Retail Research, estimates that the value of the market in the UK alone will hit £313.6 million by the end of 2014, with total Christmas sales expected to rise by 182 percent (£67.64 million) to £104.7 million compared to 2013 totaling 1,028,800 million units".
Prediction number two ties in with the first, and contends that wearables and apps will allow us to pinpoint "power hours", or the times in our working day when we function most productively -- and business folks will begin to use this to their advantage.
Samsung’s trend number three is that retail shops will adopt virtual reality tech and innovative display solutions, to make their stores (and thus overheads) as small as possible. Expect interactive wall displays, VR gear which can give customers tours of larger items such as cars, and pop-up stores with click-and-collect facilities.
Prediction number four is that smart home systems will become more widely adopted, as home automation gadgets become more widely available and easy to use (with better software and cross-platform functionality).
And finally, Samsung reckons that every child born next year will learn a new subject as a core skill at school -- coding will become as important as reading and writing. The company notes that 90 percent of all jobs which are filled next year will require at least some computer skills, and the EC reckons there will be 900,000 ICT job vacancies come 2020.
Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock