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The business part of any venture witnesses the most extreme of situations. There are companies which face the ruthless tyranny of a buyout while some thank their stars when saved by acquisitions. Whatever the path may be, cruel or rewarding, it always ends in consolidation of industry. Suffice it to say, the ‘A’ and ‘B’ always lead to ‘C’. So, here is a list of ‘A’s and ‘B’s this year, some of which lead to the ‘C’ of that industry:

1. Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn

While Facebook and Google are thought of as cool kids on the block, Microsoft has always ensured that its identity remains like that of men in suits in the tech world. And its latest acquisition, for a whooping amount of $26.2 billion, further strengthens that image. Being a highly professional organisation, Microsoft acquiring a professional social network wasn’t surprising at all. The LinkedIn social network will be quite helpful in taking the MS Office suite to the next level, adding a social component to the work, thereby connecting professionals and their work more effectively. Also, Lynda.com, a website which offers tutorials was acquired by LinkedIn some time back, which Microsoft sees as an opportunity.

2. Dell merges with EMC

If you thought $19.3 for WhatsApp was high, then this will blow your mind. Dell, the computer multinational behemoth, has acquired EMC, a computer storage company for the highest amount ever in the tech world for $67 billion. Yes! You read it right, it’s 67 billion. The merger has started and will take some time to complete. The effects and verdict of this merger will probably be visible to us by 2017 or 2018. A lot of things, from policies to name, from logos to software design, will change. Only time will tell the verdict of this expensive marriage.

3. Verizon buys the struggling Yahoo!

What once was a company valued at over a $100 billion, got sold at an amount of $4.8 billion. Verizon, the telecom giant acquired Yahoo, which had been fighting for survival for quite some time now. The deal includes the real estate and some intellectual property of the company but doesn’t include the valuable stake of Alibaba group in the company. With this deal, Verizon can go head to head against Google and Facebook in the field of advertisement.

4. Myntra buys Jabong

Flipkart owned Myntra acquires Jabong for $70 million. This move is one of those that will consolidates the e-commerce market in India today. Flipkart has made a statement that it still is one of the key players in the business and is here to stay. With Jabong and Myntra, Flipkart has gained the majority in terms of fashion e-commerce. With this buyout, Flipkart and Amazon are currently the two major pillars while Snapdeal and others are in supporting roles.

Image credits: commons.wikimedia.org

Featured image credits: http://stuffled.com/vector/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/06/Jabong- Logo-EPS- vector-image.png

Kavach Chandra

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Every New Year our expectations from technology grow more with the question “What’s next?” in our heads. The existing tech, however innovative seems stagnated fueling our desires for a newer generation which is usually termed as “need of today” by the marketing folks and advertising people. Whatever may direct the course of development; there are some moments throughout the year which stun the wits out of people into realizing the epitome of innovation achieved by the technology sector. Some of those spectacular moments expected to put a trance in consumer’s heads in 2016 are:

1.) IoT(Internet-of-Things)

Image source: http://dataxoom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IoT-Featured-image.jpg

Internet and things are among the most common words in English language. Two hyphens and attaching an ‘of’ in the middle of the two words gives rise to a completely new and upcoming field of technology. So what exactly is it?

You may not noticed the most recent ad from Philips where ranbir kapoor impresses shruti hassan by changing the color of his house lighting via his mobile app. Seems so fancy and unnecessary. Now imagine that control over your washing machine, microwave, TV, fridge and every other electronic device or appliance in your home with your personalized mobile app. And by control, I don’t mean changing colour of the appliances. That connectivity between your devices creating their own network is Internet of Things (IoT).

2016 will see major tech conglomerates focusing on convergence of their devices and working towards IoT to bring customers with one device, to well, “rule them all”.

2.) Apple watch and iPhone

Building up to one of the strongest brands, Apple devices have become among the most anticipated products of any year. 2016 will not see any break in that trend as Apple will be releasing two of its major products: Apple Watch 2.0 and iPhone 7. While Apple Watch 2.0 will be more an upgrade over this year’s newly released Apple Watch, iPhone is expected to bring about some new and exciting features. Rumored to be equipped with fingerprint sensor on screen, wireless charging capabilities, multiple camera and USB-C port instead of power or headphone jacks it is anticipated to be one of ‘THE’ devices of 2016.

3.) Augmented Reality

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality”.

-Nikos Kazantzakis

Philosophy surrounding Augmented Reality (AR) is very much similar to what Kazantzakis said. AR deals with manipulating perception of the environment surrounding us. It merely supplements the actual reality with computer generated elements such as sound, video graphics by overlaying physical entities with virtual ones. Pokémon Go, the trailer of which created a lot of buzz in 2015, is based on AR. Many companies such Blippar have been working to develop AR so that a greater value to brand user can be provided along with a rich experience. AR has huge implementations in marketing and advertising as it can be used to provide customer with extra information about the product.

4.) Live Streaming

Live streaming videos for apps garnered a lot of attention in 2015. It was a big step forward as it saved a lot of time by eliminating the need to upload video on a host website later than it was shot. Being one of the fastest growing medium, it will give rise to commentators giving live feedback on events in a similar fashion that YouTube stars rose. As 4G enters our country, the prices of 3G are expected to go down creating room for development and deployment of these apps in multitudes. Currently, Meerkat and Periscope are among the two apps that provide live streaming.

5.) Business Drive-in Apps

This year saw a lot of apps which generate business for other businesses. Crown it and MagicPin are among the top two of such apps. As Indian market is warming up more and more to the e-commerce industry, business drive in apps will thrive more as they’ll get small but numerous investments from local businesses to get more consumers to compete with the e-commerce companies.

6.) Linux in 2016

There is a lot that is going over in the world of Linux. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. mentioned that he will not mind moving iTunes to android which is based on Linux. So there is a chance that a lot of Apple apps might be available for Android.

The release of Ubuntu phone last year didn’t make the expected dent in the market share of other mobile OS. So there’s a chance that Linux apart from android will not move into mobiles.

7.) Upcoming Smartphones

Image source: http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2015/05/LG-G4-off.jpg

Smartphone war will continue with new versions of many existing models from various companies coming out this year. LG G5 will carry the banner after G4, Xiaomi Mi 6 will take charge from Xiaomi’s side, One Plus 3 will again try to kill the flagship while iPhone 7 will try to defend its flagship. Nokia and Microsoft will launch their new warriors as Nokia C1 and Lumia 940 & 940XL which may be their final line of defense. Sony will put their bids on Xperia Z6. Let’s all see how.

Feature Image Credits: http://smartphone2016.com

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