Which Tech Brands Made The Biggest Impact In 2015?
“You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been” is a great line from the movie Hitch and the same applies to technology. In order to understand todays tech world, one needs to take a look at the previous year and see who did what and how that will impact the year.
Rocky Tech
In spite of the new product launches and ground-breaking innovations the tech world witnessed in 2015, it also had to overcome several controversies. The high profile hacking of Ashley Madison dominated the news as cheating spouses were calling their divorce lawyers (or florists).
The emissions scandal involving Volkswagen raised questions about the trustworthiness of tech and more importantly how we trust information and take it to be true.
Back to the Future was a big-thing as 2015 is the year they travelled to however the commercially available “hover boards” (which didn’t hover only caught fire).
Drones came to mass market for the first time. But the safety and lawfulness became a challenge and limited its widespread adoption.
The Good Tech
A great overall indicator of the tech sector is the stock performance which was unwavering and continued to dominate. Investors who understood and used online forex trading with IG had an extremely lucrative market last year as currencies rose and dived (*cough* Rand nose dive) .
Those investors also had confidence in these tech brands that had a big impact in 2015:
Apple
For the third year in a row, Apple topped Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report in 2015. Thanks to strong sales performance and financial growth, the analysis valued Apple at $170 billion, a 43 per cent boost from the previous year.
Consumers and commentators continue to argue whether the Apple Watch, launched on 24th April, was a success or not. But if Apple’s previous performance with new products is an indicator, its foray into wearable technology will end up being a huge success, as new an modified models launch.
The arrivals of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus brought yet more features, such as 3D Touch, Live Photos, and 4K video to the loyal iPhone supporters.
Google’s brand value rose 12 per cent to $120 billion in 2015. However, this did not factor in the creation of parent company Alphabet, which took many by surprise and caused a lot of confusion.
The search engine giant then threw out its iconic serif font in favour of a thicker sans-serif font, it also dismantling Google Plus. But regardless of these changes, Google (or Alphabet) has a global influence over online users and on mobile users who use Android.
Microsoft
Microsoft is on a serious mission to turn the company around. In 2015 it introduced impressive new hardware and software .
On 29th July, Windows 10 launched and in less than a month Microsoft’s latest operating system had found its way onto 75 million devices. Then in October, Microsoft revealed the Surface Book which is a sleek 13-inch notebook branded laptop.
Microsoft also managed a 19 per cent gain in the two largest tech Exchange-Traded Funds.
Amazon
This one-stop-shop for every consumer product imaginable has now become an all-encompassing tech juggernaut, providing countless cloud-computing services while also manufacturing smartphones, tablets, and eReaders.
After it’s biggest ever loss in 2014, Amazon has regained its footing and in December 2015 it was expected to grow earnings 456 per cent. Amazon Prime Instant Video faces stiff competition from Netflix, however it seems like its loyal Prime Customers continue to renew their subscriptions. In December 2015, Amazon signed up 3 million new customers and there are even rumours that Amazon is now bigger than Netflix.
*headline image from Shutterstock.com
