Ericsson Forecasts 2016 Consumer Trends

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Ericsson reportEricsson's ConsumerLab presents the most important consumer trends for 2016 and beyond-- with futuristic predictions including internal sensors, printable foods and smartphones becoming essentially obsolete.

At its broadest the report represents 1.1 billion people across 24 countries, while at the narrowest it represents 46 million urban smartphone users in 10 major cities. In any case, here are the 10 trends it actually contains.

  1. The Lifestyle Network Effect: "Sharing" works, ConsumerLab says. 4 out of 5 people worldwide benefit from a variety of online services (such as social networks), while 34% of people participate in the so-called sharing economy through rooms, cars, bikes, internet sharing and person-to-person loans.
  2. Streaming Natives: Teenagers watch more YouTube videos than other age brackets, with 46% of 16-19 year olds watching at least 1 hour of YouTube on a daily natives. 16% of these streaming natives also stream over 3 hours of music daily, more than the other age groups.
  3. AI Ends the Screen Age: Artificial Intelligence will bring to smartphones, ConsumerLab says, with display-equipped devices replayced by wearable, voice-controlled assistants. In fact, 85% of smartphone users believe such wearable devices will be available within 5 years, with AI taking over common acivities such as web searching, getting travel guidance and personal assitants.
  4. Virtual Gets Real: Virtual reality should become more commonplace in the near future, and not only for games. VR headsets will also find use in applications as varied as video conferencing, dating services, movies and even shopping.
  5. Sensing Homes: Devices making the Internet of Things (IoT) will become commonplace around buildings, with sensors integrated into the very bricks and mortar of the house. The result is houses able to adapt to changing outdoor conditions by regulating air quality, ventilation and windows.
  6. Smart Commuters: Commuters want to spend less time in traffic, and should they be forced to do so they demand better access to social network and media streaming. Other desired features include real-time crowd information and unified pament options.
  7. Emergency Chat: 65% of smartphone owners are interested in an emergency app alerting of crisis or disaster with verified, rumour-free information, while 50% believe emergency centres should be contacted via social networks.
  8. Internables: Body-monitoring technology will take the next step by heading inside the human body to provide updates on health and wellbeing within the next 3 years, smartphone owners say. In addition, consumers also want to agument sensory and cognitive abilities (namely vision, memory and hearing) through technology.
  9. Everything Gets Hacked: Hacking is a 21st century reality, and people know it-- so much so 1 out of 5 smartphone users has more faith in a company that has managed to deal with a hack.
  10. Netizen Journalists: Consumer share more information than ever before, something believed to leave an impact on society. In fact, 1 in 3 respondents believe it is more efficient to fight corruption online, rather than heading to the police.

"Some of these trends may seem a bit far-fetched now, but consumers' interest in new technologies and smart networks keeps growing," Ericsson concludes. "Companies are therefore able to work on new products, which is an evolution that can change an entire industry and create new business models."

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