Future tech
By 2012 LCD televisions will have been ousted from shop shelves and replaced by organic LED displays. This is according to Gartner analyst Mark Raskino who was talking about emerging trends at this year’s Gartner Symposium Africa in Cape Town.
Raskino said that organic LED – or OLED – televisions will use just 40% of the power of today’s LCD televisions. OLED televisions use light-emitting diodes made of organic compounds and use less power because they don’t require a backlight as LCD displays do. The other benefit of that is that OLED screens can be thinner than current LCDs.
3D printing
Another of the key emerging trends for the coming couple of years, said Raskino, would be the rapid emergence of 3D printers. Capable of printing physical objects from CAD drawings, 3D printers are capable of a wider range of colours and materials today than they were just a few years ago, he said.
Raskino said that today 3D printers cost in the region of $100 000 (R776 000) but in the next couple of years will drop in price to around $10 000. The importance of this, says Raskino, is that mom-and-pop stores that used to provide photocopying services will now be able to provide 3D printing services from the same premises, an entirely new business opportunity.
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