5 Tech Trends for the Future – A Recap of CES 2014

A few things out of a J.J. Abrams TV Show or Movie that you gawk at now but may become a fad in the near future. We mean everyone who had white earphones then was seen as debonair and cool, but today an iPod/iPhone, is no longer a fashion statement for the super-rich or pop culture icons.

From the artistic, to the very weird in looks, CES 2014 in Las Vegas this past week provided some great insight into what Tech Companies have been spending their lab money on.

We explore a few of those new technologies, gadgets and applications here:

Wearable, interactive technology – wrist monitors for fitness apps, basketballs that connect to smartphones, and vitals monitor for babies that connect seamlessly to your smart devices: phones, tablets, TVs or computer.

Smart homes – yes the scene from Total Recall with swipe technology on a fridge was not to far-fetched. Dig this, how about a smart stove? Imagine having a touchscreen next to your stove. You say what for? Well, it replaces your tablet/computer in the kitchen, the one you mess up trying to be Nigella Lawson.

Self-driving cars – the Volvo and Audi prototypes were all the rave. But, more and more Car Makers are making connectivity to smartphones and other apps for navigation, monitoring fuel and engines, entertainment and managing your fleet a vital component of their sales proposition. If hands free is indeed safer, cars will now be even safer that you can doze while you drive to work or read a book like Will Smith in i-Robot.

Check out the Self-driving AUDI A6 from earlier this week as reviewed by Forbes.

OS landscape has evolved so much from the clunky and battery zapping days of the old hardware and applications ensemble. Now we have slimmer batteries and sleeker designed User Interfaces (UIs), with varying customisations across regions, manufacturers and carriers. Two Samsung phones running on the Android OS imported into Zambia from different sources are not likely to be the same.

Not only is the new Android version 4.4 KitKat going to lessen burden on your RAM chips, it will kick the butt out of any phone comparable as it is more streamlined to run on even older devices. Alternatively, iOS is now more refined in design thanks to the visionary Apple, while Windows Mobile continues to garner descent support from Nokia loyalists and those eager to have multiple phones or try their sleeker Camera Phones with Carl Zeiss lenses. Don’t get me started on a battle of the phones, I advise you to stick with your aesthetic.

Screen-size will matter – why do I think so? Well for starters, those with bigger screens will toot their horns about what they can do with their advertised super clearer/sharper images, but on the other hand – those who make the decision to be conservative on their screen sizes will not have to compromise much on performance as the specs under the hood will be maintained to make Mini varieties of Phones or Tablets perform just as great as their much gigantic siblings.

Here I’m talking about the best example which is the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (pictured above), unlike Samsung’s GalaxyS4 Mini (with less RAM and other proprietary smart features like air gestures), has all the specs you find on the latest Sony flagship.

On the other hand, we’ll see other Makers rush to catch up with this new trend which will be great news for consumers especially in African markets as they will have equally smart/sharp phones at the ‘right’price.

Curved Screens – this has been on many screens for a while now as we have seen Al-Jazeera with their wall-wall Giant LCD/LED screen for live news screening from Doha, and CNN is not too late to join the party either, as most of their shows now spot a Host standing in front of a curved LED/LCD screen.

Forget Michael Bay crying like a little girl and walking off stage as he fails miserably at a job he does best to direct others at doing. The curved screen is here to stay and may soon be a point of meeting for the family that watches TV together, with smart capabilities to share screens of smartphones, tablets and connect to the internet to make those family Skype calls even more cooler.

In a nutshell, the future is not too bleak in terms of where Startups, Tech Companies, Mobile Operators, Electronics Retailers, and other industry players can innovate and create new ways in which we buy gadgets, consume media or connect to the people we know and love.

Ok! So what was the point of this article. Are we just nerds with a desire to know the the cool tech things from the sci-fi genre? Not entirely, the point is that there is no reason in waiting for others to bring you stuff that you need or find cool. We hope this will inspire not only Techies, Tech lovers, geeks and nerds but also creative entrepreneurs, and innovators in Zambia to re-imagine their worlds and make their dreams bolder. Go create them and make that cash!

Image Credits: Forbes/GSArena/Digital Trends/Pocket Lint/TeleGraph.co.uk/SuperSAFTV