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TECH TRENDS 2009
IN THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY, A YEAR IS A LIFETIME IN WHICH EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE. T2 BRINGS YOU WHAT WORKED AND WHAT FLOPPED IN 2009
TWITTER TOP SIZE-0 FLOP
Misses: Global Positioning System and 3G
Misses
Size-zero gadgets: MacBook Air, the new Sony Vaio X… the sleeker and slimmer, the better — or so they said. Few went for “the less you get, the more you pay” model. It may have worked wonders for Kareena Kapoor’s career but when it comes to tech tools, we like it fleshed out.
3G: The wait feels like forever. With 3G comes high-speed data transfer, which enables access to applications like streaming video. The official word is that 3G will be here — finally — by October 2010. BSNL introduced 3G this year but with its tortoise-like speed, it failed to win the connectivity race.
Netbanking/ Mobile-banking: Despite an increasingly Net-savvy population, Calcuttans are still wary when it comes to web transactions. Access Facebook through your mobile phone you will, but pay your bills through the cellphone you won’t.
CAT at a click: Glitches dogged the first online CAT exams. We hope this is only teething trouble, considering the global shift to online tests.
Android: HTC brought with it Android Market, Google’s answer to Apple’s App Store. It may still be too early to term it a miss so let’s give it another year to carve its place.
Online shopping: Shopping sites may have had more and more clicks but when it comes to real spending, transactions have been few. Apart from airline and maybe movie tickets, shoppers still like products fresh off the rack.
GPS: Though Global Positioning System is a smart-phone feature, not many Indians have taken to using the satellite-based navigation system on their cellphones.
HITS
Multi-touch technology: Our brush with touch started with the iPhone. Though it took a while for Calcutta to get used to the idea of spending close to Rs 30,000 on a phone, once they did, the rush for touch was like never before. The city’s premium Apple reseller store, Imagine, even opened another store at City Centre 2 in September.
Not just the iPhone, in the course of 2009, touch was everywhere — in LG’s Arena, the HTC Touch series, Samsung’s UltraTouch, BlackBerry Storm… even on Netbooks like the HTC TouchSmart Tx2.
Smart phone: Push email and QWERTY were the biggest tech trends in the smart phone category. No more dictionary or multiple clicks. No more slo-mo GPRS connections.
Networking 2.0: Goodbye Orkut, hello Facebook. Then came micro-blogging site Twitter, by far 2009’s most talked-about Web 2.0 technology. For once we weren’t too far behind the West, with Mallika Sherawat, Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapur, Abhishek Bachchan, Anupam Kher and Karan Johar amongst the Bollywood chatterati following close on Hollywood’s heels. Not to forget Shashi Tharoor.
HITS: Multi-touch technology and console gaming
LCD TVs: If flat screen televisions were 2008’s big buys, LCD tellys were this year’s find for the family. Big was beautiful.
Console gaming: The Nintendo Wii was launched in India in September 2008 and gamers grabbed the console all through 2009. Sony’s PS2 and PSP also picked up speed. The obvious rub off has been in online games.
DTH: Big TV, Airtel Digital TV, Sun Direct, Tata Sky and Dish TV — for couch potatoes with class, the options were many and the marketing, aggressive. The advantage? Direct To Home beams directly into your home through a dish antenna, which means you receive the satellite signal with less quality loss. Not to mention the menu card, pause, rewind, record functions.
Browsers: Surfers moved from Internet Explorer to alternatives like Firefox and Chrome.
App stores: At first, it was only Apple’s App Store. Then came Nokia’s Ovi Store in June this year. Soon followed Windows Marketplace for Windows Mobile and Google’s Android Marketplace. Facebook applications added to the fun.
Netbooks: This new kid on the block quietly gave laptops a run for their money. For those wanting a portable computer for just email and browsing, it was a steal. HP, Dell, Asus — all big brands launched Netbook models this year. Even Simoco launched its first Netbook named Simbook last week. Nokia’s Netbook is coming soon.
2010 AND BEYOND
Google Wave: Still in its pre-launch stage, it’s only fair to give this wave more time to rise.
LED TVs: If you felt smug about having bought a swanky 40-inch LCD TV in 2009, the plethora of LED TVs in 2010 will bring out the neighbour’s envy once again. These TVs are paper-thin (almost) and the picture looks sharper than real life.
Bluetooth 3.0: This one requires no explanation — expect faster data transfers, more coverage area and many more devices being Bluetooth-capable.
Virtual libraries: Virtual libraries could — hold your breath — substitute the pleasure of flipping pages in bookstores.
Augmented reality: Imagine clicking a picture of the Victoria Memorial from your cellphone; your phone recognises it and information about when it was constructed and its historical significance pops up. Augmented reality is the overlay of live virtual information over a real-world environment. Coming soon.
Green technology: Solar heating panels have made it to the Raj Bhavan. Expect to see far more of this.
Surface computing: Pioneered by Microsoft, this category is expected to take hospitality to the next level. Imagine ordering your dinner at a restaurant from a computer on your table or gambling in a casino with the table recognising who you are and how much money you have won (or lost!) at your previous table.
Apple a day: Expect a new game-changing iPhone in June, a Tablet Mac and a new Apple TV with Indian content which will allow users to rent or buy movies from their living room.
Karo Christine Kumar
What is your favourite new technology? Tell t2@abpmail.com
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