Top Tech Trends for 2012

Read Top Tech Trends for 2012 on Geeks.com

Now that we’re well into the New Year, we at Geeks.com have taken a look at what some of the experts predicted would be among top tech trends for 2012. We’ve looked at the hits from the Consumer Electronics Show, mobile trends, and predictions from some of the top tech-heads and tech websites.

Who knows what’s going to come to pass in the next year, what will hit or what will miss? With all the changes we’ve seen in technology over the last few years, it’s hard to say where we’ll be by the end of the year with our desktop computers, mobile devices, social networking, TVs and other tech and electronic devices. Only time will tell!

Tech blog Mashable’s founder Peter Cashmore cited 2011 as a hugely transformative year for tech, but he sees bigger things coming in 2012. Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.comCashmore tells us to keep a finger on the screen for developments in touch computing. We’re moving from “mouses” to touchscreens to more fully integrated touch computing. Users will move more to tablets, and desktop systems will incorporate more and more touchscreen influence. Social media will continue to get more automated, Cashmore predicts. Facebook’s “frictionless sharing” is the first step—integrating social apps like Spotify, social readers and Pinterest with Facebook and auto sharing the content we’re reading, viewing, and listening to.

Cashmore predicts that tablets will continue to evolve and compete with the iPad, in price, interface, and features. We’ll watch more and more TV and movies on our tablets, and enjoy TV, phone and mobile integration in experiments like “second screen experiences” seen recently on shows like “The Walking Dead. ” Our phones will continue to move in the direction of voice command, and flexible screens offer interesting new design options for our mobile devices.

Each January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the toast of the town. In this case, what happens in Vegas DOESN’T stay in Vegas. CES is the chance for companies to showcase their plans for the future and show off their cutting edge technological advances. TV, smartphone and tablet integration was highlighted at CES, and a future where our smartphones and tablets are our remotes, where we’ve thrown all of the remotes that haven’t already been lost in the couch away. Also showcased were OLED TVs—TVs that are bigger, brighter and thinner than other TVs, with better graphic displays.

Intel showcased its Ultrabooks at CES—lighter, faster with 3D graphics performance. Car companies also showed off tech advances at CES. Amid rumors of driverless cars and cars communicating with one another on the road, Mercedes and Ford pushed their connected car and sync technologies. These consoles can interact with smartphones, connect with the Cloud, and use voice control to control apps like Pandora and other online radio stations. Next generation tablets, notebook computers and touchscreen technology were also big at CES 2012.

Tech guru and author Daniel Burrus cites a number of trends he thinks every business needs to be aware of. Most of his predictions are no surprise: the continued rise of big data, more advancements in the Cloud and on-demand services and virtualization. Most interesting to me are his predictions on the gamification of training and education, multimedia e-textbooks, businesses becoming more social, and how our smartphones and tablets will increasingly move towards being our primary personal computers.

“PC World” magazine counts data only cellphone plans and the emergence for HTML 5 among the shape of things to come in 2012. Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.comMore and more smartphones will feature dual core processors, and phone batteries will be longer lasting and more efficient. We’ll have to have a Facebook account to do more and more on the Web as the Facebook Empire expands. Mobile payment will become more and more prominent with the emergence of options like the Google Wallet. I love to see the emergence of music on the Cloud, more and more streaming movie and radio options, and more and more libraries allowing the checkout of e books to e-readers.

There’s a myriad of mobile tech possibilities in 2012 as well. Location based services will continue to be big in mobile, and will offer more intelligent experiences. Social networking and search will grow on mobile. Mobile commerce will become bigger as more and more users “check in” to retail sites, and utilize mobile shopping options, including mobile payments.Top Tech Trends for 2012 – Geeks.com Object recognition on mobile will continue to improve as more and more apps come on the market. Mobile email users are expected to expand by nearly 100% in 2012, as mobile email becomes cheaper and mobile email apps continue to improve.

With the pace of technological development, the sky is literally the limit. Technology often outpaces itself, so who knows where we’ll be at the end of 2012 when we look back over what’s come to pass, and get work on our lists of what’s coming in 2013!