How Are The Predicted Tech Trends of 2017 Working Out?

We are already in Q2 of the year so is it possible to observe how any of the predicted technology trends for 2017 are playing out? At the start of the year Gartner predicted a global IT spend of £3.5 trillion so there is a lot at stake.

Gartner predicted a move away from hardware spending as more companies source services from cloud-based solutions. This is bad news for the companies building servers, but great news for companies trying to quickly get new solutions up and running. This is one predicted trend that is observable in almost every IT project I see. Nobody is interested in managing their own infrastructure today, which creates a great opportunity for service companies to offer cloud solutions.

Business Insider published their own long list of predictions, from which I think that three are particularly worth mentioning:

• Internet of Things; long talked about as a smart fridge, but now it is clear that all electronic objects can connect online and be more useful. I talked at a conference last month about how auto manufacturers are planning to create cars that can self-diagnose problems – an audience member told me that Chevrolet is already doing this. It’s happening right now.
• Virtual Reality; I have long talked about VR as a tech that just needs people to have access to it at home. Now this is finally happening. In the past few months the new Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox have both been released with support for VR. Tens of millions of homes will be VR-ready by the end of this year.
• Blockchain; it’s clear that Facebook has enjoyed some success over the past year with their Messenger cash transfer service, but it’s clear to me that they will take it further and create a global currency that can be used on Facebook. The Chinese WeChat service is already used for payments so I believe Facebook will need to make a quantum leap beyond just connecting a credit card to your account and this will be by taking the experience of BitCoin and making it easy to use virtual currencies. Blockchain will underpin the experience, but the user base of over 1bn people will ensure that when Facebook seriously gets into finance it will rock the industry.

What is particularly interesting is that several of these technologies have lurked around for years without much adoption – look at Augmented Reality for a great example. However there is a wave of enthusiasm for many of these nascent technologies now because companies are finding real business solutions and consumers are demanding better services.

Which of the predicted technology trends do you think will become the biggest later this year?