This Decade in Tech

A decade is a long time by any standards, but in technology, a decade is a lifetime. And in the last one, technology became a more fluid thing, filling gaps we never perceived existed, bringing people closer together like never before, making life much easier and permeating into areas where we didn’t always want it.For enterprises, this meant a bring your own device (BYOD) trend, melting away the distinction between consumer and enterprise usage that had until then been so important to maintain. This coupled with an entire revolution in mobile computing with tablets, hybrids and whatnot meant that employees could carry their devices practically anywhere, or even work from home.All this is, of course, facilitated by the cloud, which (mostly through Amazon’s AMZN AWS, but increasingly also Microsoft’s MSFT Azure and to a lesser extent, Google Cloud), faithfully maintains the computing resources, programs and data generated, so companies have the option to scale as required while spending only to the extent of resources consumed; and employees enjoy greater flexibility and speed to achieve more desirable outcomes. Scores of companies providing specialized services have jumped on top of this infrastructure so everyone can do more for less.Behind it all is another revolution in miniaturization and concentration of computer power, with integrated circuits getting even smaller and phones acquiring larger screens and becoming mini computers, housing every bit of information we could possibly need through the day. This, of course, increased anxiety about data theft that technology companies assuaged with biometric unlocking, including fingerprints, and most recently, facial recognition technology.The app world saw sea-changes, with some members like Amazon, Apple AAPL Music, Netflix NFLX, Spotify SPOT and a few others pulling significantly ahead of the others. The digitization of entertainment happened with Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV, Netflix, etc., but many others are joining in as cord cutting has become an undeniable reality. With greater usage came greater variety in payment options and even more apps like Square SQ and Paypal PYPL gained popularity. Digital currencies and blockchain technology hold promise for the future.Facebook FB, disappearing messages from Instagram (before it was acquired by Facebook) and Snapchat SNAP, and more recently, Tiktok has changed the way we communicate today, although Facebook’s impact has perhaps been the most significant. And Twitter TWTR has become the go-to place for breaking news when it isn’t busy documenting celebrity gaffes.While we had new iterations of Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PS and the Nintendo Switch, gaming was really redefined with e-sports as a new category, drawing millions of viewers and attracting significant ad dollars. Enhancing all that was new visual technology in the form of augmented and virtual realities.Glasses overall progressed but weren’t smashing hits as Google’s version ran into privacy and other issues, Facebook’s Oculus proved too expensive and Microsoft’s HoloLens saw limited use. Still, companies and geeks remain interested in the possibilities as AR matured and made its way into iPhones.Somewhere along the line, we realized that it would be fun to have our infotainment in
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