2015 Predictions

Posted on October 10, 2015  •  4 minutes  • 671 words

That’s right, I took “technology” out of the title. Why, because I didn’t want to limit myself. As before, check out my previous years predictions  (they were especially bad for 2014). But never-the-less I will try again for 2015.

Computers and Mobile

1. Security will hopefully become a major focus. Not to say it didn’t get its own scrutiny in 2014, but maybe 2015 will see some real work to clean up underlying secure libraries and tools (SSL, email, SMS, etc.). I really hope more companies like Google  designate resources to fix and maintain fundamental internet technology. Huge phone will continue to eat into tablet markets and will also eat into laptop and TV sales. Phones won’t get any smaller and 5–6″ will be normal by years end (with 8–9″ phones available). I have a feeling most mini tablets will cease to exist by 2017. Sadly, no one will converge their phone/laptop/desktop like I hoped they would in 2014. It will be a very boring year for computers as single purpose computing devices get a big boost. Those devices will be wearables, set top boxes, and Chrome Books. They come with less maintenance and offer people all they need.

Software and Web

1. Browsers are already the new OS. 2015 will prove that even more as more native software move to work in the browser and Internet Explorer will continue its downward spiral into oblivion. Firefox sadly will also take a nose dive as it still requires web developers to develop for two platforms (webkit and geko). I really wouldn’t mind if Firefox moved to webkit. It seems like it could simplify a lot of things. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Microsoft. They sucked so bad in 2014 I can’t even see how they will pull themselves out of their hole and fix their desktop, gaming, and mobile platforms to make them something people want again (I don’t mind if they fail at what they’re currently doing). I really hope with all of the security concerns as of late that companies will take a good look at Linux on the desktop but I doubt it’ll happen. Twitter will have a falling out. It is becoming as hated as Facebook. Not that people won’t still use both. But as soon as something new comes along with the same functionality (real time broadcast updates) it has potential to gain a lot of subscribers. I really hope that “something” is in the form of a distributed social network (Bittorrent Maelstrom?) so that no single company owns it and can’t cram ads down our throats or mess it up like all the others have.

Games

What the hell do I know about games, I didn’t play a single game in 2014. I think the same things as last year about Apple coming to the market and virtual reality having a hard time finding a foothold, even though I really like it. VR will probably start expanding to other markets even more. Movies and TV especially.

Other

1. More hacks! If you thought 2014 was bad 2015 will keep it coming. Companies are hard to change and security is difficult to get right. Security engineers will become premium jobs at a lot of companies and white hat hackers will be sought out by huge companies. Tesla will continue to disrupt and cheap hybrids will come from Chinese brands. I doubt any alternate fuel cars will make production but here’s to hoping Google gets a production self driving car out by 2016. Movie theaters will see a drop and same day home streaming will be available for movies released in the theater. It’ll be expensive ($40–50 for 1 time rental), but when companies realize they can cut out the theaters and still make their money it’ll be a great boost. Most people I know don’t really like going to the theaters anymore anyway. I’ll finally give up on the Oxford comma. Probably not.

Tags: gaming , predictions , technology

Originally published at 1n73r.net  on January 1, 2015.