Tech writers Izwan Ismail, Siti Syamen Md Khalili and Nicholas King look at the highlights
THE year has been relatively good in the consumer technology scene. Technologies and trends that had started to make inroads actually got popular.
Selfies,Uber, social media, system cameras and China-made smartphones became trends.
Driven by affordable smartphones with improved front camera capability, and also the creation of the selfie stick, the selfie culture became the biggest trend this year.
Earlier in March, talk show celebrity Ellen DeGeneres initiated a selfie with fellow celebrities and 2.5 million people retweeted the picture in just a few hours.
And with smartphones and interesting apps like Beauty Face, Beauty Camera and Perfect365, the popularity of the selfie soared, driven by social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Fast and vast mobile Internet connections also helped easy posting of pictures online.
UBER RIDES
The popularity of booking taxies online opened the market for Uber, an on-demand personal driver service founded in 2009. It offers services in over 70 cities around the world.
Although local taxi drivers were worried about competition and there were licensing issues raised by The Land Public Transport Commission, the public in general welcomed this premium ride in cars such as the Camry, Accord, Teana, Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-class.
The appeal of Uber lies in its cash-less convenience — passengers hop on and off, and the fares are charged directly to their credit or debit card, or one can use PayPal.
The trend continues to be driven by the popularity of smartphones and app usage — just use the Uber app to request for the service.
POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Malaysia emerged as one of the top five countries worldwide in smartphone usage — higher than computer usage, according to Google Consumer Barometer.
Another report by market research firm TNS showed that Internet users here propelled the nation into one of the most socially-engaged markets in the world. TNS’ research revealed that over a third of Internet-connected Malaysians who responded to the survey, woke up to their mobile screen. In fact, over 35 per cent check their phone before getting out of bed.
The TNS Connected Life study further revealed that Facebook remains the top favourite app, with 88 per cent of the respondents checking in every week, second to YouTube with 76 per cent. Among Malaysians, Instagram is also more popular than Twitter, each getting 36 and 30 per cent weekly users respectively. This signals good news for the business community as social media is among the more affordable platforms for gaining brand attention.
Social media has also proven to be a useful tool for job searches and Malaysians are onboard with this. According to the 2014 Kelly Global Workforce Index, the country ranks fourth in the world in terms of worker’s use of social media in making career decisions; 60 per cent of the workforce use social media as a job search tool. Employers are also looking at social media to recruit, and depending on the persona one puts forward, it can be a boon or a bane.
MOBILE-ONLY CULTURE
Smartphones, particularly phablets, stole the annual tech spotlight once again. Though the industry was slow to capture the hot seat, eventually newer models, China’s rising engagement with the smartphone market and trend predictions gave the industry tremendous headway with the passing of the year.
It started with Sony’s Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact which boast not only signature design and water and dust-proof features but lso battery lifespan that lasts two days in one charge.
This was followed by Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and HTC’s Butterfly 2 —follow-up models to the respective brand’s series now sport waterproof and underwater photography as a feature. This was before the scene erupted into an all-out brawl when Apple launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, surprising everyone with its foray into the phablet 5-inch screen trend.
The move proved so successful that Samsung was forced to launch its Galaxy Note 4 ahead of schedule in hopes of capitalising on the phablet frenzy, just after trying to mock Apple with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and its steel-frame design — an attempt to show people only bought into the iPhone for its steel-frame in spite of the comparatively outdated specs.
As if the competition wasn’t intense enough, China and its band of smartphones stormed their way into the market this year, showing no signs of a slowdown as they move into the next year. Previously considered questionable in quality, the phones are now the rage in the market, with designs, functionalities and prices to match.
Throughout the year, Lenovo and Huawei (entity brands Ascend and Honor) have been actively launching smartphones with the Vibe X2, Ascend Mate 7 and Honor 4X being the latest models — all of them targeting the budget to mid-range market.
Competition intensified mid-year with the local entry of Xiaomi and its Mi3 as it began to dominate the smartphone market, signalling the confidence of new arrivals. This was a significant turn for the local industry as prices and choice of smartphones no longer rest in the premium market as the Mi3 proved that you can get quality smartphones at a more affordable price range.
We also saw Oppo’s fierce marketing campaign on local shores along with the international launch of the Oppo N3 and R5 — the latter held the World’s Slimmest Smartphone title at 4.85mm thick; it was overthrown soon after by Vivo with its X5 Max which is 0.1mm thinner.
We’ve seen a more intense mid-range market, what with quad- and octa-core processors taking over as the norm for smartphones — a trend that Google predicts will only grow next year when the world, especially Asia, moves towards a more mobile-only culture.
CAMERA CRUSH
Fans of photography are now merrier with the release of more innovative imaging products this year. The system camera category got more attention from consumers this year as manufacturers integrated trendy features; for example, the smartphone support to enable selfie shots on the Olympus E-PL7.
Camera makers with WiFi-enabled products made the accompanying apps more intuitive as well as offered cloud storage bundling for easy photo backup and sharing on social media. An example of such a product is the Nikon 1 J4.
The Olympus E-PL7 via its Olympus Image Share (OI.Share) app allows users to transfer photos on the spot to a smartphone and the app also functions as a remote selfie assistant. Meanwhile, the Nikon Image Space album on the web facility, that is bundled with the Nikon 1 J4, has 20GB for storing content. The camera comeswith user-friendly editing software, so users can make changes before uploading photos onto social media accounts.
While these features are exciting, enthusiasts still consider advance imaging capability important in cameras, therefore Sony a7 II is gaining favourable feedback from the photography community. This 24.3-megapixel full-frame camera with optical 5-Axis Image Stabilisation feature works in both still photography and video capture modes, therefore shakes — angular, shift and rotational — are corrected, leaving users with pristine images and videos.
Another model, the Fujifilm X-Pro1 with its APS-C 16M X-Trans CMOS feature and the XF lens, solves moire by enabling the advanced sensor to capture unfiltered resolution and eliminate false colours.
Those ready to upgrade gravitate towards the Nikon D750, the smallest and lightest Nikon FX-format model to date. With 24.3 megapixel sensor, WiFi capability and Full HD movie recording features, this dSLR model is a tough cookie encased in a magnesium and carbon fibre body.
The more serious pixmen rejoiced as the Canon EOS 7D Mark II made its debut. Targeted at semi-professional users, this dSLR camera comes with 65-point all cross-type AF system for higher accuracy and 10 frames-per-second continuous shooting speed through its new shutter technology to delight those who love to shoot action scenes.
The compact camera segment is not without trendy products. Samsung NX Mini offers a form-factor with flip-up screen, which detects your wink to trigger the shutter while taking selfie and wefie shots. The Casio EX-MR1 camera, with the Kawaii Selfie by Mirror Cam tagline, has a mirror finish to ease users who love selfie shots while its WiFi function works with the EXILIM Link app for pairing with mobile devices.
CYBER ATTACKS
It has also been a year of cyber attacks and this time, real banking sites and automated teller machines were the targets of cybercriminals. A huge amount of money was lost this year due to hacking on ATMs in Johor, Malacca and Selangor.
A syndicate, believed to be from Latin America, made off with RM1.271 million from Affin Bank and Affin Islamic Bank in these States, using only SIM cards and high-tech telephony equipment. And not long before that, banking sites like Maybank2U and CIMB Clicks were compromised when the so called God of Malware managed to penetrate their firewall.
According to initial analysis by MyCERT, attacks target mobile devices running on Android and devices with unpatched Windows operating system.
For the financial community, especially banks, the attacks are a cause of concern, and warrant a more effective and immediate solution to keep cyberhackers in check.