Digital to Sensecal - Decade of 2021

The best way to read & grasp this article is to read on computer while opening new tabs, as that would lead your way into next decade.

Source of Image: 2020 Cybersecurity Trends… (Happy New Year!!)

In a few days, we will be entering into not only 2020 new year but a new decade. As for me being a Sitecore technologist it is important for me to reflect back on the last decade which just passed by, tried my best to comprehend as much I can.

The first decade of this millennium, the world was recovering from dot.com burst but that era made a springboard for this decade to usher into the development of Digital technologies & enhance its reach to billions of people. Many digital technologies came into light & well evolved which propel our digital journey, for ex., Javascript almost conquer most of web technologies & made it way into backend & frontend through NodeJS, or new UI libraries like ReactJS made traditional PHP become obsolete, or how we store data has evolved from SQL to No-SQL. Following is a brief history of the last 10 years in the timeline to make a point that whatever happened have happened in conjunction with overall growth in technology such as device computing power, Internet speeds, to name a few.,

Legends: 1,  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 YTA – Yet to Arrive

After observing the above facts, you would be thinking what would be next decade of exponential growth look like when more than half of the world is already on the internet & in general contributing every sector of one's life . But before going to prospects of next decade, I would like to focus on the driver behind it. Following are my thoughts after a lot searching and reading, finally tried to limit it to technology.

Reach of Internet

In June 2019, Internet Users were 4.53 Billion which is roughly 58.8% of the population which is expected to increase to 97 – 99.99% by 2030. It’s not mere reach of the internet but the Quality of the Internet of 4G speeds would improve for its all the users while 60-70% of people would be experiencing 5G & beyond speed & latency.

5G & Beyond

Most people perceive 5G as a milestone in internet technology which would not just increase the numerical speed of data upload / download but experience people would feel while streaming 4K/8K videos. There are three broad use cases defined by International Telecommunication Union:

• Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB): This is commonly referred to as 5G which is the progression from 4G which results in faster connections, higher throughput & lesser latency.
• Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC): This refers to using the network for mission-critical applications that require uninterrupted and robust data exchange for example., like Remote Healthcare or Industrial Automation, etc.,
• Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC): This type of network which connects to a large number of low power, low-cost devices, which have high scalability and increased battery lifetime, in a wide area.

You have heard headlines about 5G standards being ready & Brands are planning to roll out 5G capable phones. As far as 5G concern, only Phase 1 has been completed which refers to only eMBB use cases which are commonly referred to as Release-15. Release-16 which may focuson URLLC & set to releaseby mid-2020. Release-17 is up in the air (and is about to start soon) & planned to be completed by Q3 2021. It would be just about enhancing 5G features in different areas including mMTC.

Early first few years of next decade, we will see low to -mid-band of 5G rolling out while hoping by 2025 we would see peak speed/latency/throughput released at least in few countries. That would be a phenomenal change in terms of huge proportions which would influence & somewhat change our way to interact with day to day life tasks & business we all involve.

Computational Power

Moore’s Law was supposed to be dead by 2025 as per Moore himself. But our technological advancement killed it already 1. many alternatives have spurred up, & all of this would evolve further in coming years, one type of such alternative is Specialized Processing Architecture for ex., GPUs(FOR AI & advance Graphical computing by nVIDIA), TPU(Tensor Processing Units Introduced by Google), FPGAs (Microsoft used it for Bing). I see all these alternatives bridge towards something radically new but branches of old semiconductor-based computing which is making way to welcome new field of computing. The next biggest discovery of initial decades of upcoming millennium would be Quantum Computing, which I foresee would be in at least the world’s largest enterprises by end of the year 2030. Obviously, this wouldtake decades not just because it is complex but also because of our limited knowledge of overall Quantum Mechanics so far, its real classical physics getting into a way to get you a smartphone size Quantum Computer. If you have the courage to survive hardcore physics, I would love to explore Quantum Entanglement & all other related series. Anyway, here is a good read which gives one an idea where it is today. By the way, if you are wondering how fast it would be anyway, Answer is a 30-qubit quantum computer that would be equal to the processing power of a conventional computer that could run at 10 teraflops (trillions of floating-point operations per second). Today's typical desktop computers run at speeds measured in Giga FLOPS (billions of floating-point operations per second). While IBM & Google both claim that they have 53 ubits Quantum Computer ready. Such cases of extreme computing would increase Data & Internet speeds and usage at an exponential rate. There are early sets of languages & SDKs that are in the making which may lead to this era.

This brings to the Question:

“ How digital marketing will evolve in next decade which will shape the experience business? ”

So far largely the Digital Experience we witnessed provided by Digital Marketing was designed around viewing it, sometimes hearing but not beyond it. Most of us think & perceive today website presence or brand experience landing is the mere commodity which we see in our day today life through Smartphone, Laptop, TV, streaming devices, etc., which is in some or other form geared toward one of basic Human senses 'sight'.

In the future, it would be just hearing when you don’t want to see it, but also it maybe be accompanied by things which you could touch, things which could provide the experience of other human senses. For example., think of a device which you can order for tasting/smelling like food at your home without purchasing actual product. How about reading glasses being connected to the Internet & people love to watch Netflix or shop for their products with AR-enabled content.

In such a world could you imagine people typing or clicking bookmarked websites to reach brand/product/services?

The best nascent example of a device that covers at least a few senses is intelligent is Amazon Echo. The same device can evolve tomorrow once you pack more sensors & have accessories joined to it, will make a good experience device of future.

My point is we need to stop thinking digital with its usual HTML boundaries, we need to blend physical & other aspects of human senses to create an experience that lasts forever. These experiences can be delivered by such devices or living services could provide dynamic two-way conversations. In the end Digital, we know today would revolutionizeto the core in 2030 & beyond, and we could barely recognize thekind of experience we deliver today, something similar happened to simple HTML website and internet connect connections of the nineties.

Now, will that call Digital after 10-20 years?

The next decade may be called as Sensecal. As it would appeal to a broader aspect of us being human senses not just a pair of eyes & brain attached together to experience.

But before leaving I can’t resist the top three companies which changed this decade forever at least from the personal opinion:

Tesla: They disrupted Automotive Industry from slumber of 100 years

Netflix: They disrupted Cable Industry & how movie & television industry worked

Airbnb: They changed the hospitality industry & might be biggest IPO of 2020

Disclaimer: I claim no subject matter expertise, but I see traditional Software companies are parroting day & night about Experience, Value etc., but they hardly inspire new generation of technologist innovators they might be mere 90’s Shopping Malls. Views like this, are my personal opinion & are not associated with my Employer or partners of Employer in anyway. All images shown here link-back to their original publishers & I claim no ownership of it, it is here to mere make a reference & republish what is already available on Internet. All Logos &Trademarks are of their respective owners. This article is edited by @parulaggarwal for language. This article originally published on my personal blog site.