10 Tech Predictions for 2018 Infographic

Ten strong technology forecasts that are likely to occur in 2018.

by Luke Wester | Published: December 12, 2017 | Updated: January 31, 2019 11:10 am

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Ten strong technology forecasts that are likely to occur in 2018.

10 Tech Predictions 2018

Video as a primary form of communication is becoming mainstream, and adoption rates continue to increase thanks to mainstream applications like Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts. But the market is getting crowded, and we can expect consolidation in the cloud video conferencing (VCaaS) and web conferencing space, with multiple vendors getting acquired, going bankrupt or leaving to focus on other areas of the market.
The workplace collaboration market will abandon the term “Unified Communications” en masse, moving instead to variations on “team collaboration,” “intelligent communication,” “persistent communication,” etc. In fact, vendors will race to claim market leadership while distancing themselves from UC and painting the competition as “traditional UC vendors.” They will rehash the value propositions and promises made for UC and claim that the new holy grail of enterprise communications will be achieved through this new paradigm.
Workspace messaging will become the biggest battleground for enterprise communication, so the market will keep consolidating on the high end (Microsoft & Cisco). Challengers will include Slack and Google. At the same time, the worlds of video conferencing, UC and workplace messaging will collide into a single interface.
Smartphone sales will decline. Why? Because we all have them, and they’re good enough. Not enough innovation to keep sales increases (except for China, India and Africa). Additionally, there will be greater bifurcation of offerings with an explosion at the high and low end, and very little change in mid-level offerings.
AI will go through one of its hype cycles, and everything will become “AI enabled” – e.g. every Silicon Valley startup will talk about AI to the point where it’s almost comical.
Computer vision will become mainstream in all kinds of cameras, e.g. smartphones, GoPros, webcams, traffic cameras and security cameras.
We will see the first-ever trillion dollar market cap company (likely Apple) and the first-ever person with a net worth more than $100 billion (likely Jeff Bezos).
Real and mainstream applications for blockchain will emerge, e.g. banking transactions, insurance coverage and online dating.
Together, Facebook and Google will earn more than 50 percent of the world’s total advertising spend.
The European Union will file a major antitrust action against one of the top five tech companies.

By: Luke Wester

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