25 December 2015
2015 was a year with many interesting (technological) developments. We discussed the hype around wearables, virtual reality, cloud computing, alternative currencies with the blockchain technology, face recognition, and robotics. Taxi-app Uber was very active, introducing for example food delivery trials and merchant-delivery services, although they encountered some issues throughout the year. Facebook is still discussing the introduction of a ‘dislike button’, while other unicorns are having more serious problems. Traditional retailers accelerated sales online, while still competing with giant Amazon who keeps on innovating and further disrupted the (online) grocery market. There was an ongoing battle between different social media companies, music platforms, and video-streaming apps. We celebrated the fifth birthday of the iPad and discussed the introduction of buy-buttons throughout all different websites and platforms. Mobile usage increased further, reflected in interesting app usage statistics, and resulting in a focus shift of key players to mobile payments. Windows 10 was launched, while Apple introduced the iPhone 6S and marking 2015 as its best year ever. Finally, the year was topped off by SpaceX’s spectacular landing of its rocket boosters, promising new advances towards affordable commercial space travel in 2016. Looking back on 2015, we can only conclude: 2016, bring it on!
Happy holidays!