Ask HN: What will be the 2021 trends in tech? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What will be the 2021 trends in tech?

13 pointsaerosmile11 comments

What I like about this time of year is that people tend to publish their predictions for the following year. While many of those predictions turn out to be comically wrong, I still find value in identifying some high level patterns in people's thinking.

Can you think of any interesting new trends, or did you come across anyone else's that are worth sharing here? To somewhat narrow the scope, I would suggest that we focus on the tech industry (although that's very very broad these days).

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Software Bill of Material (SBOM) will become more of a thing - where you must list the dependencies and their hash you used for supply-chain security and vulnerability management.

New law enforcement techniques using DNS and other Intel techniques will be used to track, seize and tax cryptocurrency - which will cause increased popularity of Ethereum.

A qubit will travel around the world without decohering and increase attention on quantum internet investments.

GPT4 and other ML models (maybe even with a neuro-feedback loop) will radically change entertainment for Gaming, movies, books, and music.

Smart Cities will start emerging ( and some cities which will ban the technology) with ML models and Intel systems capable of identifying all kinds of hazards (fires), threats (terrorists) and crime at scale.

A new “shadow net” will emerge from new mesh-networking protocols and massive amounts of compromised IoT devices- allowing users to bypass core internet routers and ISPs with the “shadow net”

XR with depth field scanning and smart tailoring with drastically change the fashion industry ( shoes and clothes). So people can virtually try on clothes and order perfectly tailored clothes from their home.

Low code. There's two types: Writing less code, and cutting the lines of code in the code stack. The latter involves writing more code, and is a response to the low code trends so far.

2020 was the year of offline to online technology, and we'll see new things emerge from this. Things like video and remote conversation/management might finally get adopted, as well as contactless payment.

More ethical/privacy focus. Platforms (e.g. iOS, Mozilla, and Android) are clamping down hard on things like cross-tracking. Businesses that learn to make money without selling their users are going to do well.

Some AI products will start to emerge. My bet is on GPT-3 actually being useful.

> Low code. There's two types: Writing less code, and cutting the lines of code in the code stack. The latter involves writing more code, and is a response to the low code trends so far.

This is huge, watch this space.

1. Consolidation of remote collab tools, more WFH days from old school companies:

I work in management consulting for a big four. So far I've seen all clients adopted MS Teams super quickly in a very standardized way during the year. They were all already with the typical Jira suite, CI/CD tools and such for development work, but non-developers are all about Teams/Outlook, no other collab tools. Never liked Slack anyways, so good. MS has gotten quick to adapt and copy features from other startups, then make an enterprise-friendly version of it that still looks like a new toy, so no FOMO anymore. Long gone are the days of the Outlook suite lagging in features compared to anything consumers were using. So far I only see Google competing well in this space, thanks to the cheap per-seat price and superior solution for some case scenarios.

2. High profile cybersecurity fiascos:

I've seen a huge growth in demand for these kind of professionals in the consulting space, and even with all big push, because of bureaucracy and the usual mediocrity regarding data handling, high profile incidents will continue for years to come. I for one, still prefer doctors that keep pen and paper files.

3. Active Noise cancelling now a staple:

I like to try chinese earphones, sometimes it's a massive deal and some brands have really perfected a signature. I do own a pair of QC35s that I use daily, but I'm more interested in what can be achieved for less and each year I'm more surprised. Now you can get in-ears with good sound, battery and ANC for about 50 bucks. I can see these being adopted as the standard or at least a trend during 2021 even in emerging markets.

4. Return to value stocks:

As more people get the vaccine and everything returns to normal, currently bargain value stocks will get a new push while tech may remain a bit flat after the bull run this year. With Biden elected, a lower dollar, China getting back to previous manufacture numbers, I'm expecting metals like copper and lithium to keep going up.

5. Intel:

If Microsoft realizes good savings in the cloud space using ARM, and Amazon/Google jump the gun too, Intel is so screwed.

This is the year of Linux on the desktop

Not until font rendering is ever fixed https://pandasauce.org/post/linux-fonts/

You forgot /s. Someone might think you're serious.

This was 2016… when WSL was released. It's already here.

Is it ground hog day already?

*Linux on the phone

If anyone actual knows the future, I want in so I can buy the right stocks.

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