It’s no surprise that technology progresses swiftly with every passing year. While some technologies are predicted early on to spread out and become mainstream, some take us by surprise and rise against the general trajectory of a demographic. The year 2018 has been no different, and some interesting technologies have come together to see the progress of multiple sectors in India. While some have involved hardware, most have involved sectors of service-oriented technology in general, in both the consumer and enterprise spaces. While we have already taken a look at the top smartphone features we saw this year, let’s take a look at the key technology trends that India has observed, in 2018. Do note that the list is in no particular order.
Table of Contents
AI became a household term
We have been predicting the rise and overflow of artificial intelligence in almost every year. While certain analysts will still say the AI has not entirely taken over, it’s hardly debatable that 2018 has been the year when fields such as ‘AI’ and ‘ML’ (machine learning) became near-household terms. There’s still a long way to go before AI reaches the scale of Hollywood’s apocalypse blockbusters, but 2018 has been the year when AI became a buzzword for the general public, and people opened up to the possibility of advanced technologies.
Much of this is owing to smartphone manufacturers, and their (rather generous) usage of AI and ML keywords in marketing material. It is not all advertisement, though — basic machine learning structures have been put in place to improve scene recognition and imaging in mid-range smartphones, and flagships such as the Apple iPhone XS and Google Pixel 3 have implemented advanced stages of it (with computational photography) to improve mobile photography, very significantly.
2018 has also seen a significant rise in voice-based searches, through the likes of Google Assistant and Alexa. This year, some of the voice assistants finally became more intelligent, providing insights such as intelligent music recommendation, curated content suggestions and more. All taken together, it’s evident that 2018 is when AI became mainstream.
PS: Apple loyalists will be slightly disappointed to note that while Siri somewhat started off the voice assistant phenomenon, it still remains disappointingly… well, disappointing.
Professional eSports in India
When the year began, many had suggested that this will be the year when India’s fledgeling video game industry finally comes of age. Hardly so, many would argue, but 2018 has been the year when gaming has finally been noticed by the mid-aged generation of India as a field with ‘serious’ intent, and people have begun seeing potential in it.
Pivotal to the rise of this industry has been the smartphone boom, coupled with significantly faster and more affordable data. With the quality of affordable smartphone hardware also improving, there has been a massive upsurge in gaming, which further led to the establishment of the eSports industry in general. Today, reports indicate there are over 200 million ‘gamers’ in India, including casual, enthusiasts and hardcore players.
Furthermore, investments and media coverages in these sectors are gradually increasing, leading to wider awareness of gaming’s professional side in India. Global powerhouses such as Google are putting more emphasis on mobile gaming, while hardware manufacturers and energy drink brands are collaborating to establish more festivals. With higher sponsorships and participation, prize pools are also increasing, thereby drawing in more players into the arena.
A lot of work is still to be done. But, 2018 will forever be remembered as the year when online gaming and the eSports industry of India was practically reborn.
Streaming services took on conventional TV
Watch any end-of-year interview of the film fraternity, and they will tell you how the rise of the online platform and established foreign streaming services have completely changed how experimental, topic-led films were treated in our country. One look at the biggest hits of the year will tell you all you need to know — original content has ruled entertainment charts this year.
Among the chart-toppers include the likes of Sacred Games, Ghoul and Little Things on Netflix, and Mirzapur and Breathe on Amazon Prime Video — both platforms being global video streaming powerhouses. Even Indian content house Hotstar has been raking in viewership, especially with its international sports coverage of the English Premier League and Formula One, as well as old metropolitan classics such as Friends. Sony LIV, too, struck gold, winning the rights to the broadcast of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and still continues a viewership base with sports coverage that includes the UEFA Champions League.
To sum up, streaming services are well en route to displacing conventional TV. While many had argued prior to their arrival that very few will pay for the services, everyone seems to have been proved wrong. Sure, there are many areas where TV reigns supreme, and that happens to be the majority of India. That said, the gradual rise of localised content has already begun, and 2018 has been the year when online streaming platforms have truly taken to India, and vice versa.
Truly wireless earbuds went mainstream
This one has been a slow rise, but truly wireless earbuds are steadily taking over the in-ear audio product segments in India. Key to this has been the influx of affordable Bluetooth 5 modems, which is leading to many local manufacturers coming up with truly wireless earbuds that provide the experience similar to rather expensive independent buds such as the B&O Play E8, or the Sony WF-1000X.
While the auditory experience certainly has room for improvement, the rise of affordable truly wireless earbuds will ensure that better performance comes at lesser prices in future. Furthermore, these gadgets also integrate voice assistants, are sweat resistant, and are fast being taken up by fitness enthusiasts. This, in essence, is a prelude to a possible future where gadgets such as these will be capable of inter-connectivity, and you would not need to take your phone when you go out running for an hour.
It is this year that kickstarted this trend, and from the way we see it, truly wireless earbuds are the way forward for the personal audio industry, especially as more and more phonemakers are ditching the 3.5mm audio sockets from their offerings.
Connectivity became exceedingly affordable
Sure, 2018 is not when 4G first became affordable. That said, about two years into Reliance Jio‘s disruptive launch in India, internet connectivity is truly super-affordable in the country. Even for a first-time user, a basic LTE and VoLTE-enabled smartphone will cost as little as Rs 4,500. Add that to data plans that often offer as much as 4GB of data at LTE speeds for approximately Rs 500 per month, and you cannot help but wonder how a 20Mbps, 120GB internet connection was priced at nearly five times the present cost, just three years ago.
The reason for this trend in 2018 is by taking into account better network quality, wider coverage area, availability of ultra-affordable hardware in the market, internet and connectivity penetration in fringe areas, and finally, the availability of better quality of content on the internet, for a huge variety of consumers. All of these factors have come together to make 2018 the year when ‘the next billion’ truly takes to the new forms of communication. The next trend perhaps elucidates this one, even more.
Vernacular internet platforms
When you innovate in the field of connectivity for a country like ours, you cannot just stick to the internet’s primary language of communication, English. Many have noticed this already, and have hence established successful startups that are catering to the vernacular language content needs of users based in the wide variety of regions in India.
Take, for instance, ShareChat. The company, which was founded to be a regional language sharing platform, has gradually picked up so much importance that it is being actively used by individuals such as politicians to reach out to their target audiences. DailyHunt, too, is broadcasting content in local languages to ensure a wider outreach of latest news and customised content, per region. Roposo, yet another unique take on vernacular social media, is built to be a customised internet TV service for localised users, featuring videos from content creators in vernacular languages. This gives creators a new platform to engage with the audience, and vice versa.
Companies, hence, now have branched out to offering content in up to 22 different local languages. This has been one of the most definitive trends in technology of 2018, and the greatest advantage here is the fact that communicating in local dialects always have a greater impact than communicating in a foreign language. The next few years are bound to pick up the pace on this.
Notable mentions
3D printing picks up pace everywhere
Sure, it never really picked up in the consumer sense, but it probably wasn’t ever supposed to, really. Instead, 2018 has been the year of solid development in the field of 3D printing, particularly in enterprise technology. Tata Motors is using the technology for modelling prototypes, and a host of Indian startups are supplying affordable 3D printing technologies and solutions to companies in a variety of industries.
The rise of air purifiers
While this admittedly started in 2017, 2018 was the year when pollution levels in major Indian cities reached the apex. As a result, 2018 also became the year when in many households, especially in Delhi and Mumbai, you would see a smart, connected air purifier of some kind or the other. Many companies, notably the likes of Xiaomi and Dyson, have entered the fray, and going at this rate, 2019 might just end up being the year when air purifiers become a compulsory addition to households.
