We’ve seen many innovations in 2015, but wait for 2016 as it’s going to bring us more superior technologies.
MYLE did some research and prepared a list of five technologies that would dominate tech industry in 2016.
1, Smart Clothing.
The hottest trend will be smart clothing, a technology that’s being under development for nearly a decade, but not hyped as VR headsets or fitness trackers.
However, namely this tech will catch the most eyes in 2016.
Imagine a t-shirt that functions as your personal body computer. It collects accurate information as you walk, sleep, work or train. Smart clothing may even see your body position and which muscles you currently use during that specific physical activity.
The smart clothing is developed of intelligent textile technology, which is made of flexible sensors. So those sensors are conductive materials made of carbon. These materials use elastic deformation to generate an electrical signal. In turn, the special computing and analytical software will calculate, predict, analyze and even find a way to stabilize person’s health issues if there are any.
Whom to follow: Sensoria Socks, Cityzen Sciences, OMsignal.
2. Wearable Devices in the Office.
In 2015, companies began implementing wearable devices into the workplace to increase productivity. Wearable technologies are designed to ease the work by making it more efficient and productive.
For instance, DHL was one of the first companies in 2015, that’s tried to implement wearable tech in their U.S. warehouses. DHL aimed to help their workers determine the fastest route to finding products by replacing handheld scanners and paper job orders using Google Glass; thus, they reduced the time needed to pick out an item and pack it for shipping by 25 per cent.
However, it seems that majority of companies will continue implementing such technologies for workers who are usually on-the-go.
MYLE, which release is scheduled for 2016, will be one of those tech devices that are designed to increase overall work productivity, save time, make working more efficient by saving company’s labour recourses required to perform certain tasks.
Whom to follow in 2016: MYLE, Office Apps for SmartWatches, Wearable Smart Glasses.
3. Virtual Reality (VR)
VR has been in development for such a long period and finally it’s going to arrive on the shelves in 2016. Undoubtedly, 2016 will be the big year for VR.
According to recent research, the sales of VR headsets will reach 14 million units in 2016 with most used for gaming.
The reason people will mostly use them for gaming is the relatively lower cost to create the games when the movies require more resources to film in VR.
Noteworthy that this market is crucial for Facebook-owned Oculus, HTC in cooperation with another gaming giant Valve and Sony as they will be the main competitors.
Certainly VR is going to change the way we look at the entertainment industry as it offers the unique experience of being part of your favourite game or movie.
Who to follow: Samsung, Oculus, HTC, Sony.
4. Healthcare wearables
In 2016, we’re going to see the new healthcare devices with startup companies , as well as a few big acquisitions.
Healthcare wearables will be equipped with better hardware parts to speed up computing and analytics, enhanced body sensors for data collection, as well as simplification of the communication between a doctor and a patient.
According to Frost & Sullivan’s recent research on consumer behaviour to health tech, revealed 24% of consumers currently use mobile apps to track their health, when 16% use wearable sensors and 29% use electronic personal health records.
Approximately 47 per cent of consumers consider using wearables in near future.
Whom to follow: sleep apps and wearables, pain relief technologies, Google.
5. Fitness Trackers
Fitness trackers are designed not exactly for health monitoring purposes but more for counting your daily activities.
According to recent research, fitness trackers will be the hottest trend in 2016, but MYLE does not agree with that statement.
However, the new generation of fitness trackers will be much smarter, personalized and include more features and apps than the old generation.
Whom to follow: FitBit, Jawbone, Garmin, Moov, Microsoft Band.
Watch the bonus video about tech predictions for 2016 from Bloomberg.