I normally write a short blog before the year is out. It would normally reflect on the past twelve months, give a view of all the technologies that have arrived, what they were like and what my thoughts were for the coming twelve months…
I won’t cover as much as I would normally, but I will give a quick overview… the whole thing has to start with ZOOM. Twelve months ago no one had heard of ZOOM, now its a common word that covers anything from a quiz, to a work call, to job interview, to a drink down a virtual pub… ZOOM, the use of video calls, and the incredible breadth of demographic that now leverage video calls is staggering. Until VR kicks in, the video call is now king…
Next is online shopping, covering everything from clothes, electronics, and the lesser spotted toilet roll… the explosion of online shopping, the move to online, the use of online, it has increased so much, and bricks and mortar shops have had to very quickly make sure they can keep pace. I think its fair to say that the likes of Amazon have swept up a huge amount of the online shopping move, but others like John Lewis, Currys etc have all seen a jump in online sales.
Technology launches were reduced but there were still some big new bets placed by some comoanies. Samsung had another attempt at their Galaxy Fold, with the release of their new and much improved Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G (catchy eh?!). Apple launched their new iPhone 12, not sure if you noticed but its apparently 5G (?!). Microsoft and Sony launched their new consoles (generation 9 as I think we are now up to). Stock was short for both, and some Christmas trees didn’t have what was wanted under it, but overall they seem to have had a pretty good reception.
Threat actors were very busy this year. With many causing disruption in some very public press activity. Its not surprising in some ways, that people stuck at home were able to keep themselves busy by doing some hacking…
Also, and most importantly a lot of people had some form of personal interaction with Covid, or the ripples that are caused by it. Be it kids at home, family being ill, work, jobs, pay, schools, queuing, masks, washing hands… the list is endless. We have all had a very tricky year, I think that 2021 will continue to be a challenge. As I sit and type the UK is currently in the region of 50k cases a day, the number is increasing… we aren’t out of the woods, and realistically I can’t see things significantly changing until Autumn (the Fall) 2021.
2020 is a year that a lot of people want to end, a lot of people want to forget. But if you squint, and look hard, there were positives… my road has a Facebook group now, where we try to help eachother out. The value of core jobs such as teachers, bin men (and women), nurses, doctors, delivery drivers supermarket workers, are just a few core jobs that people were suddenly able to see the value of… although far apart, I still managed to have quality time with my parents and brothers, and without a shadow of a doubt, I found out how resilient (and brilliant) my kids are when it comes to adversity.
2020 was a shitshow, and as someone said, that’s not overly fair on shitshows, but there was some amazing things done by some amazing people and we shouldn’t lose sight of that… here is to 2021 and it bringing the best bits of the old normal back.