2014 has been a magical year for mobile devices. The Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S5, the one-of-a-kind Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, the Google Nexus 6, iOS 8, Apple Pay, and Android 5.0 Lollipop were all released—and that was just over the past few months! But these releases paint a picture of the trends future mobile technology will likely follow in 2015, and next year looks like it’s full of possibilities.
Android Lollipop
All hail the great Lollipop! Google has started rolling out its latest OS, so you should expect to see it on your Android device by early 2015. This means KitKat, the current Android version, will slowly fade out, and Android devices will start coming out of the box with Lollipop installed. Manufacturers will be editing their user interfaces to make the most out of Lollipop’s cool new features—and they aren’t the only ones looking to get in on the action.
A new design language known as “Material Design” is coming with the new OS, and it brings brand-new graphics and interface capabilities. AndroidPIT reports that this will allow developers to put new features and designs, like integrating 3-D views with real-time shadows, into their applications. 2015 is going to be the year of Lollipop, so expect to see fresh and original apps for this future mobile technology revealed over the next twelve months.
The Cloud
The victory of cloud storage is the downfall of the microSD card. While this tiny memory stick has been complementing smartphones for years, recent trends from some of the strongest phone manufacturers indicate that expandable storage might be moving out in favor of the cloud. TechRadar reports that HTC, once a long-time supporter of microSD cards, has not used them in the company’s last few Android flagships, and Google and Apple “shun them.”
On top of that big hit for the microSD card, cloud storage has also become much more affordable. Many service providers give a certain amount of free space to their members—”right up to 50 GB in the case of Mega,” says TechRadar.
While releases like Apple Pay and mobile devices with 64-bit processors are all terrific steps in an awesome direction, it’ll ultimately be the cloud and Android Lollipop that truly define what the mobile terrain will look like over the next year. Which trends do you think will be the driving forces in mobile technology development for 2015?