TMCnet News
What to expect from tech in 2014 [Software & Services] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) This time last year, we spoke about how 2013 will see increased personalization of IT and mobile devices like smartphones. That did happen, but it also led to privacy walls being breached. In the coming year, thanks to Edward Snowden's revelations, people will be more conscious about privacy, and will take care to protect information stored on their devices and ensure their online behavior remains confidential. Michael Joseph, manager, systems engineering, Saarc, Fortinet, says home automation devices that control electrical consumption, temperature of fridges, etc could become new targets. Security fears notwithstanding, we will be more dependent on technology. Devices like Google Glass and smart watches will get better. Person to person, person to machine, and machine to machine interactions will increase. Sunil Lalvani, MD, BlackBerry, India, feels technologies like NFC and M2M will move to the next level driven by smartphones. S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, says people will use at least three connected devices for their diverse needs like editing, watching videos or simply connecting with friends. Phillip Beniac, regional VP, Qlik-Tech, Asia Pacific and Japan, sees the emergence of touch as a shift from consumerization to humanization of IT. "Touch technologies encourage interactivity in surprising ways - people simply enjoy working with touch and appear to be more willing to explore with a tactile interface than with a mouse-driven environment." Television revolution High definition and ultra-high definition technologies will be more affordable, presenting us with exciting opportunities for new video experiences not seen before. According to Cisco, video technology in ultra-high definition will become imperative for smartphones , augmented reality glasses, tablets and other devices equipped with camera. Manoj Padmanabhan, business head, new media, Zee Entertainment, says 2014 will see a sharp upswing in the number of users consuming video and TV on-the-go . "With smartphones offering bigger screens and better audio /video outputs, live TV has already caught the attention of the youth in a big way. Further, players like Ditto TV are available across all OS and devices giving the youth multiple access points." He says there is a possibility of content providers tailoring content only for mobile TV in the near future. Big data and analytics With increasing ease of collecting data, analytics will boom. According to Anand Ramakrishnan, business head, HCL Services, "Real-time access to multi-structured data improves decision making and enables businesses to be more agile to market conditions. They will have to leverage social networking , cloud services, analytics and mobility." Gaurav Vohra, founder of business analytics school Jigsaw Academy, feels more businesses will leverage social media to connect to customers. "Techniques like text analytics and sentiment analysis will gain credence," he says. Enterprise app stores Due to increasing penetration of mobile devices at the workplace, users expect enterprises to provide the capability, flexibility and power they get in the consumer world. "This is likely to lead to organizations setting up app stores of their own, referred to as enterprise app store where an employee can go and get access to all the applications required to perform a business task/activity," says Sanjay Deshmukh, area VP, India subcontinent , Citrix. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |