In an industry that’s constantly evolving, we feel it’s important to give you the latest mobile and tech news. Because whether you’re new to mobile, an industry leader, or an international brand, having the latest mobile and technology news is vital to the success of your mobile app development. So, here are the top tech stories from December 2018.
To make sure you don’t miss out on the latest mobile news, sign up for the Sonin newsletter today. Here are the quick links to the top stories of our December Mobile & Tech news:
- H&M Unveils Voice-Powered Gift Guide
- 5G Phones are Coming in 2019
- Wearable Device Sales are Skyrocketing
H&M Unveils Voice-Powered Gift Guide
To showcase its H&M Home decor collection, the company launched a voice-enabled gift guide for Google Assistant. It’s no surprise since smart speaker ownership jumped to 27% of all consumers this year compared with just 14% a year earlier.
With its voice-enabled gift guide, H&M joins the long list of brands rushing to adopt the technology. But it’s important to remember voice isn’t a box to be ticked. Instead, it has to provide genuine value to your customers. They want a convenient, conversational way of interacting with your brand and your voice-tech offering has to match that.
Related: Using Chatbots & Voice Assistants for user research
Related: Sonin Create – Voice Assisted Bots
5G Phones are Coming in 2019
Electronics giants LG and Samsung both join the 5G race, revealing more at their first 5G phones at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in February. But what’s all the fuss about?
Right now, restrictions in bandwidth and latency are limiting features like Augmented Reality. But looking forward, 5G speeds will unlock “a 10x improvement in throughput, a 10x decrease in latency, a 100x improvement in traffic capacity, and a 100x improvement in network efficiency.
So, it’s no surprise that by 2020, two-thirds of organisations plan to deploy 5G. How will 5G affect the future of your business?
Related: Preparing for the Future of 5G
Tech the Halls with Target
Target’s Augmented Reality offering is centred around one thing: easing the stress of buying items like Christmas decorations. For example, instead of having to guess the size of the tree required, customers can use the AR app to get a realistic, 360 view of the product.
Source: Target
Wearable Device Sales are Skyrocketing
The total number of smartwatches shipped will hit 74 million units next year! Making them the top segment of all wearable device form factors.
What’s next according to Gartner? Hearables (or ear-worn devices). These include Apple’s AirPod, Samsung’s IconX and Plantronics’ BackBeat FIT. And by 2022, these kinds of devices will account for a third of all wearables.
Easily accessed, hearables make the perfect platform for interacting with your voice assistant on the go. All with as little friction as possible.
Related: Wearable Security for Enterprises
Merry Christmas from the Sonin Team! 🎄
Our office will be closed from Monday 24th December to Wednesday 2nd January for Christmas. We’ve had an incredible year working with many of you and we look forward to more award wins, tech news and industry insights in 2019!