Tech Trends that you can expect in 2012

January 14, 2012

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2012 promises to be fun from the digital point of view. There will be plenty of digital movements and many of these will have you sitting up and taking notice. By all respects, it’s going to be a good year and more importantly, it’s going be a busy year for techno geeks.

Let’s take a look at some of these trends that might just make a big impact on our lives.

The Ultrabook

Long live the PC! Yes, dear people, the PC is not dead yet, because it’s begun mutating itself. Surprised! Why. The reasoning is very simple. People are going to fall more in love with the idea of using Tablets, so it makes sense that the PC undergoes a mutation that help it mimic the best features of the tablet. Intel is the one that has coined the term Ultrabook, a term that represents a laptop that is ultra thin, ultra light and ultra powerful. The keyword as can be imagined is ULTRA. And this is not a figment of some Intel developer’s verdant imagination; many such laptops were released at the end of 2011 during the holiday season. It’s going to take some time, but all indications are that the Ultrabook is going to be next big thing on the market. There is going to be an explosion of these devices and users are going to queue up in huge numbers to get their hands on their beloved Ultrabooks. Just wait and watch!

Mobile Augmented Reality

Technology that allows users to get a virtual view of the real world has already arrived and is increasingly being used in games, location specific apps etc. But now, the whole idea of ‘augmented reality’ is going to become only cooler. Think about a scenario where you are searching for a sports shop in your neighborhood. With augmented reality, you wont just get an on-screen view of the street that you are searching the shop on, but you will also be presented with its location and its reviews right on top of the of this view. Get set for more advancement in ‘mobile augmented reality’ in 2012.  There is no doubt that more and more apps are going to integrate augmented reality in some way or another. And with most smartphones and tablets being 3G and 4G ready, and offering high definition screens, and the benefit of multi-megapixel cameras, augmented reality is going to becoming even more real.

The Economy Powered by Micro-Payments

Recession or double digit growth, whatever the state of the economy in 2012, micro-payments are going to become an important part of all the transactions happening in the world of business. More small businesses are going to open an online shop and even if they don’t, there are plenty of online merchants out there who are willing to hawk all sorts of wares, and that too without burning a deep hole in the pockets of small businesses.  Aspiring entrepreneurs are finding their feet and on different sites all over the internet, and all they have to do is host their product/s on these sites. Sell anything and everything and get paid online. Yes, I know you are going to say that this is already happening, but here’s the thing. This is all set to become a whole micro-economy in itself. Shopping has already gone mobile; imagine where it’s headed next. All this is going to lead to a surge in micro-payments.

Exhausted Social Media Enthusiasts

Is that ever going to happen! I mean, are people really going to get exhausted with the whole idea of using social media. Hmm… yes and it’s already happening. Just because, there is no let up in the number of people signing up for Facebook and Twitter doesn’t mean that the millions of users already on it, are still as enthused about using it as they were earlier. I know it’s difficult to believe, but in 2012, an increasing number of people are going to reevaluate their 搬瓦工 use of social media sites and their place in their lives. This introspection has already begun, and right now it’s still on the low end of the scale, but people are beginning to get a grip on their use of these platforms and their social interactions on them. 2012 can well be the year, when many users realize how their lives are in the stranglehold of online social interactions. These people will then try to release themselves of this stranglehold. Let’s just wait and watch.

So, here they are. Trends that might just reinvent the wheel with respect to digital technology! Some of these trends have already begun taking shape… but we will need to wait till 2013 to find out, whether any of these trends really made themselves felt or not.

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About Pratik Dholakiya

Pratik Dholakiya is the founder of Growfusely, an SEO and content marketing agency. Pratik has contributed on sites like Moz, Fast Company, Social Media Examiner, KISSmetrics, and Content Marketing Institute to name a few. He's a "must-follow" SEO expert according to Search Engine Watch and has been named one of the top content marketing influencers by Onalytica. He's passionate about fitness, entrepreneurship, start-ups, and all things digital marketing. Hit him up on Twitter @DholakiyaPratik for a quick chat on any of these topics.