Technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) is re-shaping industry and augmenting the abilities of professionals, including doctors, lawyers, and architects, enabling them to do amazing new things. However, it’s also enriching our everyday lives by improving our ability to communicate with friends and family, improve our health, fill our homes with smart appliances and gadgets, or simply just letting us kick back and enjoy movies, music, and gaming in more impressive and experiential ways.
So here’s an overview of a few of the ways that Apple, Samsung, Sony, and the other market leaders will be looking to part us from our hard-earned cash in 2022.
Rise of the Domestic Robots
Robots in the home have been on the cards for a while, and robotic vacuum cleaners and other single-purpose devices are already relatively common. But with Astra, Amazon is bringing what it believes will be the first general-purpose home robot to the market. If it’s a success, other manufacturers are sure to follow, in the same way, they did when Amazon introduced home AI assistants with the Echo.
Advancing AI Smarter Intelligence Everything In The Transportation And Logistics Industry
The first generation of "smart" products were really just "connected products," from smartphones that let us browse the web to TVs that let us watch Youtube and Netflix. Smart consumer devices in 2022 will build on this ability to deliver personalized solutions to the unique challenges we face in our day-to-day lives, whether it’s the angle that the sun shines on our TV screen or monitoring our activity to provide fitness advice.
VR/AR and the Internet of Senses
Engage with digital content and services online traditionally involves stimulation of two of our senses – sight and hearing. Moving forward, both manufacturers and content providers will look to engage us through touch, taste, and smell to create truly immersive consumer experiences. Much of this will take place in virtual reality environments (VR), where new devices will let us smell and feel experiences, meaning that they will seem increasingly “real” and interactive.
Videogame Phasmophobia involves hunting ghosts, with the terrifying innovation that players can feel themselves being touched or grabbed by ghouls and apparitions, if they are wearing a haptic suit. Both VR and augmented reality (AR) consumer devices will proliferate during 2022 – Oculus is reported to have sold close to two million of its Quest 2 headsets during 2021, meaning more content producers will be motivated to bring their games and experiences to VR.
We can also expect consumer entertainment, including movies and gaming, to provide more realistic audio experiences
Enter the Metaverse
A new Matrix movie will drive consumer interest in virtual worlds and alternate digital realities, and consumer technology will be there to offer a taste in 2022.
Companies including Facebook, Nvidia, and Microsoft have laid out their plans for the metaverse, with their aim of creating immersive online environments that offer a persistent world for work, socializing, and play. However, game developer Epic could have played the biggest part in showing us the way forward.
5G and other ultrafast networks
5G capabilities will become the norm for mobile phones and other devices at all price points, rather than being confined to premium and flagship products. This will mean higher definition and higher bandwidth video services will start to become available, including 8K streaming as well as cloud gaming and VR. This means that devices will become smaller and lighter as there’s no need for bulky processors and graphics chips, with all the calculations being done remotely and the output simply streamed to consumer devices as a video feed.
Smart homes and the internet of things
The trend for all things domestic to become increasingly “smart” and capable of communicating and connecting with each other in more useful ways will continue throughout the next year. In fact, analysts at Gartner have predicted that the average home could contain more than 500 smart devices during 2022. This year should finally see the launch of Matter, the “smart home OS” created in collaboration by Apple, Google, and Amazon, which aims to create a standard operating environment for connected devices in the home.
Currently, devices from different manufacturers generally operate using their own protocols. This could change in 2022, when it’s predicted the market for smart home devices will grow to $53 billion.
NFT, blockchain, and digital twins
When it comes to their applications in consumer technology, they are closely related. Put simply, blockchains (persistent, distributed, and encrypted digital ledgers), NFTs (unique tokens that can be created and stored on blockchains), and digital twins (digital models or replicas of real-world products or processes) will change the way we interact with technology. In 2022 we will start to see them impacting consumer products in a big way. Consumer brands including Sony, Asics, and Coca-Cola have signaled their intention to be a part of the NFT space, and we can expect to see digital goods and services designed to complement and augment physical consumer products. This is a result of brands increasingly seeing growing their digital engagement to be equally important to their business strategy as simply selling us products.
Source: https://www.forbes.com
