I recently viewed a lot of “Top Tech Trends in 2015” videos and I am depressed. Not because the videos lacked typical tech-evangelist optimism. No, I am dispirited, because of sad similarities that afflicted so many videos.
Most “Top Tech Trends” videos can be categorized into 2 types. One type is blatantly self-serving. “Everybody will be doing cloud computing. Quick, buy my suite of cloud products or all the other Chief Information Officers will call you names and make fun of you.”
The second type of video is what I call “buzzword bingo.” The goal is not to communicate, but rather to establish the speaker is cool and hip by cramming as many faddish words as possible into a single sentence. “When you buy a taco, facial recognition will establish your identity, derive your preferences from algorithms that data-mine your social media, download the appropriate taco template from cloud storage, fabricate it with a 3-D printer (which is connected to the Internet of Things), and pay for the food with New Field Communication(NFC) from your mobile.”
The following are not necessarily the best “Top Tech Trends in 2015” videos, but rather the ones that I found the most interesting.
In spite of erroneous predictions about the timing of the iPhone 6 release and the unverified claims about its display’s durability, I liked this video below from the folks at Epic Technology. Unlike so many other videos, I got the impression that the producers actually put some thought in what they were saying, instead of just repeating empty phrases.
Trend Hunter’s video is less about technology than about how consumers’ behavior is changing due to adoption of innovations. More fads than technology. Still very interesting.
The next video got my attention not because of what is said, but rather who is saying it. Futurist Jack Uldrich gives 100 lectures a year, mostly to business groups seeking guidance on navigating the rapidly-changing tech environment. I have no idea if his prediction of gas prices dropping by half will come true. What I do know is that a lot business people will take his prediction seriously and plan accordingly.
Of course, you can ditch the videos altogether and take a look at these written forecasts from IDC and Gartner.
