5 Technologies to Watch in 2011

Happy New Year!  So begins another twelve months of exciting technologies to watch, explore, and use.  In 2010, the world was consumed with fascinating technologies --social, mobile, touch-based computing, geo-location and cloud-based computing.

No other year in history, that I am aware of, pulled nearly everyone in the world into having technology at the core of our lives.  Need proof? Almost 600 million people use Facebook. Unprecedented and amazing. Best of all, the 2010 technologies were essentially a launch pad into 2011. Below are our predictions on 2011.

Before I begin, I would like to make a note. Yes, this is another predictions post. However, to steal a line from 2010s “The Social Network”, “The Internet is not written in pencil, it’s written in ink.” That is to say, with these predictions, it will be fantastic to be able to look back to the beginning of the year and discover where we were right, and what we got wrong. So here goes:
 

Tablets – more specifically, Android on tablets in 2011.  This prediction is of very little risk. 2010 showed us the iPad and showed the unparallel demand for such devices. However, Apple being Apple, is leaving ample opportunity for Google to come in, with several manufacturers as partners, and garner some market share. My prediction….Android will overtake Apple on both
phone and tablets by the end of 2011. OK, maybe beginning of 2012, but it’ll happen.  And this is coming from an individual who writes iOS code and not a lick of code for Android (although
that changed about 2 weeks ago).
 

Natural motion controls – Ah. Personally, perhaps my most favorite technology in the past decade. 8 million devices sold in 5 weeks. 8 million. Of course I am referring to Microsoft Kinect. If you haven’t had an opportunity to use Kinect, you need to try it. It’s just a “wow” piece of technology. The ability to interact with on-screen objects and uses them as if you were physically holding them, or moving through them is exciting. Although at this point Kinect exists only on the Xbox and is primarily for gaming, that will change in 2011. At Havas Drive, we’ve been using sensors from PrimeSense the (manufacturer who makes the Kinect camera for Microsoft) for the past six months to interact with our 3D spatial environments using natural gesture control. In Q1, PrimeSense, with the help of Asus, is expected to bring their camera system to the PC. During CES this week, Steve Ballmer hinted at Kinect on the PC this year as well. Best part….this is a 1.0 technology. Much, much more to come. 
 

HTML5/CSS3 – Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have all started some level of support for HTML5 in 2010. In 2011, some standards (hopefully) will become more agreed upon and Internet Explorer 9, the browser with the largest market share, will support HTML5/CSS3. As a result, expect to see a lot of Flash site conversion to HTML5 and all new site/mobile web development, to be built on HTML5.

NFC – or Near Field Communications, is expected to receive a significant bump this year.  From Wikipedia “Near Field Communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeter (around 4 inches) distance”. NFC is also read-only. Meaning it’s secure. So why is NFC a prediction in 2011? Google Android. Android is baking it right into the latest OS which will be significant. Imagine buying a product with your phone, instead of your wallet. That’s NFC, and that’s where it’s headed in 2011. Expect Havas Drive to be there with healthcare implications using NFC as well. The iPhone 5 is expected to have an NFC chip built-in and with the heat from Android, I expect it to happen.

Mobile video – iPhone 4 brought us FaceTime in 2010, setting the foundation of what is expected to be an explosive growth in mobile video communications.  Already several vendors such as Skype on the iPhone, Yahoo! Messenger and a slew of others have brought video communications to mobile. However, it’s not ubiquitous yet. In 2011, it will be. To be clear, this isn’t a prediction that every call made on your mobile phone will be video induced, but expect about 25% of smartphone call to be made with video. I also expect to see healthcare take advantage of this technology.
 

What technologies do you think will have an impact or used in healthcare?