5 tech trends to watch out in 2012

As 2011 draws to a close, here are some trends which will top the trending list in 2012:

1) Mobile payments and NFC
This year saw the success of Square's iPhone dongle and that seems to be just the start of mobile payments. 2012 will have NFC change the mobile payment landscape. My earlier post talked about this more.

By 2013, 1 in 5 cellphones are expected to be NFC enabled. This trend is by far going to be one of the biggest and impact our day-to-day life.


2) Siri and beyond
Siri feature in iPhone 4S might still seem like in an alpha stage but it is the advent of sophistication in the voice control field. While voice control has been around since many years, it was not until now that it seems intelligent and futuristic. There are also talks that Apple might use this to replace the remote control.


3) Spatial gestures
While voice will thrive in 2012, spatial gestures will also have early adoption. Microsoft Kinect has started this trend and its going to get more and more popular in the coming year.


4) More Tablets
2011 was the inflection point for tablets. With the Kindle Fire selling like hot cakes it is expected to give some serious competition to the iPad. The different in price points would make this play more serious.


5) HTML 5
2011 already saw the start of many apps in HTML5 and even hybrid in native wrappers. With the biggest advantage of multiple platform support, this is definitely going to be explored by many more companies who are considering mobile apps for their businesses.