AgVoice | Emerging technology trends

Technology is today ruling our lives. Be it professional or personal, technology – hardware as well as software plays a major role in all that we do. It helps us in doing major tasks at home and office as well as communicating with our peers in office and our friends and relatives on social networks, e-mails, video chat etc. The pace with which all this is happening baffles us at times. 

 

For the generation of today keeping abreast with the changing and emerging technology relevant to their field of work has become imperative. Although a lot is being developed and discussed in technology, I feel there are a few landmark developments that are set to rule out lives in the next few years. Some of them I have briefly dwelt upon here.  

 

 

More and more companies conduct campaigns and surveys on social networking sites like Facebook to determine their buying references, tastes and behavior. The modern city is thus becoming a pointer system, the new URL, for tomorrow’s hybrid digital physical environment. I would call it Placebook complementing Facebook. Explosive innovation and adoption of computing, mobile devices, and rich sources of data are changing the cities in which we live, work, and play. Example an ice-cream manufactures operating a chain of retail outlets in a city looking at the facebook places, foursquare check in data points along with their tweets, updates about preferred ice-cream flavor and accordingly serving customers, offering discount on sales of the largest selling flavor locally.

 

 

A pattern of computing is emerging where interactions with technology will be conversational. We’ll literally talk to them and they to us. Voice Recognition is a key enabler of this. A lot of computing companies and those in other sectors like automobiles are quickly adopting this. Employing voice command to control operations and control is the in thing! Mobile phones, Computers, Cars, Washing Machines, and Microwaves everything will soon hear you speak and react.

 

 

We are seeing the launch of open data aggregation platforms that provide API’s for 3rd Party sensors, front-end applications, and analysis engines. A self tracking enthusiast will be able to merge spotify, nike+ and withings data to see a comprehensive overview of her health and life style. Humanized suggestions that prompt and guide individual actions will be higher than ever before. A liquor manufacturer offering the 1st beer free across all pubs in a country to people who carry a specific QR code in their mobile phones as a gesture of being a brand fanatic and supporting it is a fine example of this.

 

 

For the past decade we have been seeing a convergence of multiple pieces of hardware into fewer generalist devices. The smart phone is the almost perfect example of the convergent digital device. It has absorbed much of the most common use cases for portable devices like music and video consumption, digital photo and video capture, email and calendar, and of course voice. But because of this, when users are purchasing a dedicated device, they are gravitating towards product with higher quality and better design to elevate their experiences. 

 

 

User interaction with technology is going above the glass. It’s raining tech here in India. We no longer need an explicit tool or even direct manipulation to drive user interface. With the ability of technology, to see user’s movements in space, gestures are being added to traditional layers of interaction. For example we have smart TV’s that respond to voice commands and hand gestures to change programmes. The manufacturer is able to plan marketing initiatives around such newer experiences and thus drive usage patterns and product sales.

 

 

Smart phones are making significant in-roads into an entirely new segment: the lower end of the mass market and the “base of the pyramid”. Some Indian mobile manufactures have captured a notable market shares offering high end smart phone services in sub Rs 5000 phones. The features almost match high end phones and offer rich user experiences like social networking, net surfing and 3Gs. These smart phones will not be notable for hardware innovations, as they’re stripped down versions of their more expensive and feature-packed brethren. However, they will be notable for a large population of Indians who aspire for high end smart phones. Everyday there are new applications that are driving and making our lives easy. No wonder mobile is the fastest developing thing in India and no one can afford to ignore the mobile penetration be it a product manufacturer or a digital advertiser.

 

Hence, dream! Dream for what ever you can think of. The tomorrow is right here, a tomorrow like never before. A tomorrow, right out of the Sci-fi movies. Think of a world where everything is flat and convergent. Tomorrow’s consumer will just have few screens where they would like the brands they love to interact with them creating a seamless experience and providing information they need through SO-LO-MO touch points. Technovation is going to be the key decisive factor for consumer mind space. Ideas + Technology + Risk Taking ability are going to drive the excellence and thus market leadership for brands. | By Arnab Mitra

 

 

Arnab Mitra is the National Director, Digital, Starcom MediaVest Group. A Digital Advertising thought leader with experience of working in various disciplines of marketing and communications - ecommerce - interactive media and direct/internet marketing. A major in Information Technology and deeper interest for marketing has always helped him mix communication with cutting edge technological solutions to execute critical yet innovative ideas. His love for technology and passion for ‘technnovation’ keeps him thriving for futuristic solutions for the brands across categories and industries. A human experience strategist dedicated towards creating simple, meaningful and real-time experiences for consumers.