These days, it's fair to say that the
technology of today will be almost unrecognisable in the future. New technologies
to make the day-to-day activities of businesses and the lives of consumers
easier are constantly surfacing and changing the way we connect and interact
with one another. As a result, mobility strategies among businesses have had to
evolve at a rapid pace.
Looking back, enterprise computing has
historically tried to keep up with the latest technology trends. For example, the
floppy disk became the CD-ROM, which later evolved into the modern day USB. As
the number of businesses using tablets within the workplace continues to
increase, the importance of staying on top of the latest technology is
imperative, in large part because the access to key business data is vital to
the success of organisations in the age of the internet. Dell’s recent tablet
survey found that almost 95 percent of
tablets had met or exceeded business expectations. This was driven by the need
for employees to have access to information at all times, a factor which will
continue to drive adoption across businesses over the next few years.
The theory of evolution
Originally the black sheep of the
computing family, tablets have evolved into a cool and stylish technology
enabler with the ability to provide mobility and productivity to business, and convenience
to consumers. Taking shape in the 1960’s after featuring in popular sci-fi
series Star-Trek, bought to the fore in the 1990’s with the PDA, and eventually
to the explosion of what we now know as the modern day tablet in 2010, the idea
of a portable and mobile computing device has been around much longer than
people might think.
Success in the tablet market can be
attributed to the evolved needs of today’s worker. Since appearing a few years
ago, tablets have gradually been associated with increasing employee
productivity. No longer a distraction or just another toy for consumers,
tablets are now viewed as desirable business tools that add value to the day-to-day
running of a successful business. For example, salesforces can retrieve data in
real-time ahead of important meetings and healthcare workers can access
sensitive patient information more efficiently to better treat patients.
The same Dell tablet
survey discovered that 78 percent of IT
decision makers agree that tablets have increased employee productivity levels
and that the number of people using tablets will continue to grow. Subsequently
a recent eMarketer study stated that more than one billion people worldwide
will use a tablet this year in everyday life. With tablet usage set to
increase, the market is in danger of becoming saturated and only the fittest
devices will survive. New technologies will play a vital part in deciding which
devices triumph and how they will evolve, as long as these primary
differentiators make a practical difference in the way people use technology to
enhance their personal and professional engagement.
Artificial intelligence
In order to
stay ahead of the curve, businesses need to be constantly innovating to remain
competitive and on top of their game. Artificial intelligence (AI), is a term
famously linked with technology, but what percentage of society are able to
specifically define it? We are not able to fully delineate AI because as
technology advances, our very definition of intelligence also continues to
evolve and change.
Recently Stephen Hawking commented on how AI
has the potential to supersede humanity. In the near future, as man and machine
continue to become closer, it will become more difficult to pinpoint where the
man ends and the machine begins – wearable technology is already showing aspects
of this. Whether people choose to recognise it or not, the Internet of Things
is already happening. Anything that can be connected, will be connected, as
long as it enhances our experiences - from fridges that order food from the
supermarket once you’ve run out, to connected smart watches – the way we live
our daily lives is set to change dramatically, and quickly.
While it is almost impossible to
predict the future without a time-machine, as we get closer to building
machines that have the ability to think like humans, there are both merits and
dangers to this technology, which remain to be seen.
In the near future cognitive computers
will have the ability to supplement decision making. We’re seeing the early
stages of this already with the introduction of virtual helpers in tablets and
other portable devices, but this is only the beginning. In the future,
employees will have the potential to get these virtual assistants to help
coordinate products, manage workloads and schedule conferences. This has major implications
for industries such as healthcare, which require huge amounts of knowledge and
information. Cognitive systems will have the ability to digest large chunks of
knowledge and exercise this to make decisions instantaneously - much quicker
than a human could ever.
Wild
gestures
Remember how excited we were when the
first computing touchscreen displays launched? Little did we know this was just
the beginning, computing touchscreen displays are now an integral part of
everyday technology and gesture control is now the future. Dell’s recent evolving
workforce study highlighted that 87
percent of IT decision makers believe that all computers will use hand gestures
in the near future. Back in 2002, we can all remember how cool Tom Cruise
looked when he was browsing through various databases with just a flick of his
wrist in ‘Minority Report.’ In the 13 years that have passed technology has so
significantly advanced that soon screen interfaces with 3D cameras will allow
us to simply gesture at our tablet and then carry out the actions onscreen.
Size
matters
Keeping with the theme of the future,
just when we thought tablets couldn’t get any thinner, the size of the next
generation of transistors being constructed means that flexible paper-thin
computer screens will be the way forward. New research
estimates that flexible computing devices will appear on the market in just 10
years’ time, not only will these be malleable but they will be purpose built to
provide better response times, use less energy and their transparency means there
is no need for a backlight.
Powered
up
How many times have you been using a
portable device, be it a laptop or tablet and it suddenly dies? It can
definitely be argued that this is perhaps the biggest stumbling block in the
life of a mobile worker. How can you be truly mobile without a power source?
Surprisingly, battery-life is one of the slowest advancing technologies, since
the 1970’s we’ve relied on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to power our
gadgets. However, there are new technologies on the horizon which have the potential
to change this, one of which is, wireless power. According to recent IM research,
this market could be worth a huge $5 billion by 2016.
The concept
of wireless power is very similar to that of wireless internet. The charger is
the router and the receiver button is the battery that automatically charges
the device when it is within a
certain range.
This has a substantial impact for society and the workforce, imagine a world
where you need fewer power sockets because remote charges are installed
anywhere and everywhere.
Conclusion
The continuous
advancements in mobile technology mean tablets will always adapt and evolve,
and in line with this, attitudes to the use of tablets in the workplace will
also continue to change. New advancements in technology are constantly evolving
and challenging our understanding of technology itself. In order to survive,
businesses need to be forever acclimatising to new environments – look at the
chameleon, it’s survived more than 80 million years in the wild, where so many
other creatures have failed.
The workplace
of the future will undoubtedly be based around convenience and flexibility, the
pace at which this is accelerating means the way businesses currently operate
in a work place environment could soon become a thing of the past, No longer is
Darwin’s theory of evolution exclusively aimed at humans, it can also be
attributed to technology. Survival of the fittest is key.
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