Great Scott! In the cult 80s film ‘Back To The Future II’ it was predicted that by the year 2020 there would be flying cars, hoverboards and even automatic jacket driers. Whilst these technological innovations are yet to come to fruition, here at Little Red 🐓 we are keen to examine what might actually be unveiled over the next 12 months in the world of technology including apps, gadgets, speakers and gaming.
Sustainability looks to be front and centre in the technology world again this year, and importantly so. Expected to this month alone are robots that pick-up rubbish on the beach and a rooftop panel that creates water from solar energy, CES will give eco-conscious companies a place to shine. Impossible Foods, which is on a mission to replace meat from livestock with a plant-based simulation, hopes to appeal to a global audience with pork substitute Impossible Burger that is has just unveiled in Las Vegas. Tech companies with a sustainable mindset always catch-up our attention here at Little Red 🐓, we work with both energy-efficient smart lighting firm Nanoleaf and design-led, timelessly upgradable audio brand Transparent Sound.
Still struggling to stream music and film at a decent quality? Well 2020 may be the year this all changes. For Brits, 5G is technically here already, with numerous networks offering the ultrafast mobile standard in urban areas such as Manchester and London. But there are very few devices that support 5G just yet, the Huawei Mate 20 X to name just one. Leading manufacturers such as Samsung, Google and Apple currently only offer smartphones that are compatible with 4G. That is all set to change in 2020, when consumers can expect hardware such as the Pixel 5, iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S11 to support the faster connection, meaning watching your favourite TV shows on-the-go with no buffering will be a reality.
Elsewhere, the smartphone industry seems to be dead set on constantly one-upping itself on an annual basis. Other phones already have four cameras, so why not Apple? The company would have good reason for adding another lens: while the iPhone 11 Pro is perhaps the best smartphone camera on the market, it falls far short in one specific area – with just a two times optical zoom at the highest level. So, a bigger zoom lens would be well received by any users who like shooting big things far away or small things nearby.
From consoles to blockbuster games, 2020 is looking electrifying for gamers. Video gaming has been quiet over the past few years in terms of headline console launches. With Xbox Ones and PlayStation 4s in houses across the nation, Microsoft and Sony turned their hand to retro consoles and more affordable models. Nintendo released the Switch redefining what a console could be both at home and on the move. Fornite changed the game, the most popular title in the world is playable across PC, console and smartphone offering more platform versatility than ever before. But 2020 is set to see the launch of a new Xbox, a new PlayStation (rumoured below), a new Halo and a new Last of Us.
Instagram to set to become the new QVC, if it hasn’t already. There’s a big shift happening on Instagram, and no, we’re not talking about your disappearing likes. Instagram has been quietly laying the groundwork to become an online shopping paradise. One year after introducing Instagram Shopping, which lets businesses link to specific products, the company added Checkout, which lets you buy those products without leaving the app. Instagram still only lets a handful of brands participate in Checkout — insisting that it’s still “early days”, but the company has been clear that it sees shopping as one of its best bets for the future.
Is autonomous driving set to stall in 2020? Tesla chief Elon Musk has said he expects his company to create a truly “complete” autonomous vehicle very soon. The number of vehicles capable of operating with less autonomy, featuring functions such as automatic braking and lane-changing, will become an increasingly common sight. Google’s sister-company Waymo has just completed a trial of autonomous taxis in California, where it transported more than 6,200 people in the first month. It won’t just be cars, of course – trucking and shipping are becoming more autonomous, and breakthroughs in these spaces are likely to continue to hit the headlines throughout 2020.
Music streaming looks set to surge to historic heights. According to the BPI, the music industry is now dominated by streaming – with fans cueing up 114 billion songs last year, a new record. Overall, 154 million albums were either streamed, bought or downloaded – the largest amount since 2006, when the figure stood at 161.4 million. This trend is expected to increase in terms of both subscribes and revenues. But whilst the masses remain loyal to Spotify and Apple Music, fans of certain genres such as classical are now looking to niche services to feed their needs. Step forward our client Primephonic, the music streaming service devoted to the classical genre added offline listening and SONOS integration in 2019 and its enthusiastic team are looking to manually input further metadata for as many classical works as humanly possible in 2020.
2020 looks set to be a tantalising time for tech! Here at Little Red 🐓 we ferociously digest the latest innovation news in order to keep our finger on the technology pulse. We are proud to work with companies such as British security firm Brisant Secure on its Ultion SMART connected door lock as well as smart lighting outfit Nanoleaf and design-led audio firm Transparent Sound. Last but by no means least is Western Digital Corporation, its sub-brand SanDisk is world renowned and the data giant has just unveiled an 8TB SSD at CES, the world’s highest capacity for a portable model. Little Red 🐓’s versatile technology division went from strength to strength in 2019 and this looks to continue into a new decade.
