10 Most Significant Technology Trends to Look Forward to in 2015

1) The mounting popularity of Apple Pay will cause a wider reception of mobile payment systems – a technology segment that does away with the need for physical cash by allowing you to make payments with your Smartphone. Also called as digital wallets or e-Wallets, mobile payment systems allow you to make in-store and online payments as well as money transfers by downloading an app onto your phone and linking the service or app account to a bank account or credit/debit card. Popular mobile payment systems, other than Apple Pay include Google Wallet, PayPal, Level-Up and Square Wallet.

2) On-demand radio and TV apps are dime a dozen. But in 2014, we saw the rise of other on-demand apps that proved real life savers by giving you an urgent ride back home and meals delivered in no time. While this year saw a flood of radio cabs and food delivery apps catering to your needs, not to mention the rich and the lazy, you can expect on-demand services to expand into other segments, too, including on-demand beauty services, hotel reservations and even emergency health services.

3) Beacon technology uses Bluetooth to sense the location of a device and work with apps to carry out certain functions. In the coming year, we may see several applications making use of this technology. For example, McDonald’s is currently testing beacons that will deliver coupon offers, alerts, employment opportunities and customer surveys right as customers enter its stores. Microsoft’s 3D SoundScape headset relies on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons placed in strategic intervals, to help the blind travel independently on roads and public transport.

4) Messaging app Line recently launched Line Pay to allow users to transfer money and purchase items directly from the app. The service will also let users pay for goods when offline. Payments via social apps are quite common in China and Korea, where WeChat and Kakao Talk are dominant players. Globally, mobile payments through social apps are an emerging trend and we’ve already seen some early adopters including Snapchat. Facebook and Twitter are also working on in-app payment services on their respective platforms.

5) Media streaming is picking up at an exceptional pace, but with a majority of activity being carried out on Smartphone there’s a pressing need for quick load times in videos, games and other media without compromising too much on the quality. This need can be fulfilled WebRTC, a free browser-based technology that can help in providing seamless video and audio services. In addition to videos, WebRTC allows lag-free and faster loading of games and music, without gobbling too much of the network’s bandwidth. WebRTC is currently powering Google Hangouts and Amazon’s Mayday services.

6) Thanks to the popularity of self-destructing photo and video app, Snapchat, many have joined the ephemerality band wagon and we expect this trend to grow. Earlier this year, Facebook offered to buy Snapchat for over $3 billion. On being turned down, the social-networking giant introduced a similar service called Slingshot. Facebook-owned Instagram launched Bolt, which is currently available in limited countries. Wickr and frankly, on the other hand, are self-destructing messaging apps.

7) With the Apple Watch set to release in 2015, this is definitely going to be one of the most watched trends for the upcoming year. Sure the Apple Watch’s square design hasn’t appealed to a lot of hardcore fans and yes there are questions about whether the battery life of this smart wearable from Apple will be up to the mark, but that hasn’t stopped it from being one of the most awaited devices.

8) 3D printing which allows users “to print three dimensional solid objects from a digital file” is a trend that will only bigger from 2015 onwards. Q3 of 2014 saw around 33000 such printers getting shipped which is a 4% increase, report Canalys. This year we saw talk of 3D printers being used to potentially create personalized makeup and how legs from a 3D printer helped one dog called Derby run for the first time. So yes the technology holds extreme consumer potential.

9) From Google’s I/O conference to the Apple WWDC 2014, the smart home concept was definitely the most talked about this year, and it’s likely that we will more on these two fronts from both Apple and Google. Apple introduced Home Kit during its annual developers conference this year and essentially the app will allow users to connect their iPhone/iPad and control things like garage doors, lights, security cameras, even thermostats and switches. Users can just control these through Siri.

10) This basically allows centralized data storage and computers can access this data. Clouds can be classified as public, private or hybrid. Essentially cloud computing allows you to store data online and access it whenever you need it. According to IDC, “Total cloud infrastructure revenue for the quarter grew 16% year over year to $6.5 billion. Public cloud infrastructure accounted for nearly half of total cloud infrastructure revenue and is growing faster at 18% compared to one year ago.”