Trends, Opportunity, and Convergence

Convergence could persuade consumers to accept new technologies. While trends are the pattern of gradual change in a condition, output, or process, or an run of the mill or general tendency of a series of data points to move in a certain bearing over time, represented by a line or curve on a graph. And one morning in our Technoprenuership 2 class we had discussed about trends and opportunities in convergence that change the whole wide world.
In the past, for illustration, each entertainment medium had to be played on a precise device. Video was played on a television by using a video player of some type, music was played on a tape deck or compact disc player, radio was played on an AM and FM tuner, and video games were played from beginning to end a console of some sort. in the same way, different communication media used their own technologies. Voice chat was carried on using a telephone, video communication briefly used high-end video phones, facsimile copies used fax machines, and e-mail used a computer.




The Internet is conceivably the most prevalent example of technological convergence. Practically all entertainment technologies – from radio to television to video to books to games – can be viewed and played online, often with greater functionality than they have in their most important technology. Communications technologies, as well, can be used, with the Internet replacing fax machines, telephones, video phones, and the postal service. While technological convergence gives consumers the ease of having many devices all in one, saving on both size and cost, there is an original tradeoff in quality. When technological convergence first gives birth to a new multi-technology, the a variety of technologies it is comprised of are more often than not at a to some extent lower standard than independent devices. more often than not within a year or two, however, this unlike quality is reduced to a almost unnoticeable level.

Global megatrends are overarching global forces that stem from the past, are shaped in present and will transform the future. These forces impact developments in various areas such as our geo-political, social, cultural, economic and technological surroundings, and they influence consumers' lives across countries, industries, social classes and age groups. While megatrends are neither mutually exclusive nor completely exhaustive in terms of explaining future realities, they provide authoritative insights into how companies can prepare for the future. Progressive corporations use systematic analysis of megatrends to build and improve market scenarios, and develop strategies that help them anticipating and leveraging future business opportunities. The capability to comprehend megatrends can make all the divergence between taking advantage of new business opportunities as they arise, and chasing competitors for next best, often times short-term ideas. Technological convergence is the trend of technologies to come together into new technologies that bring together a countless of media. While in times gone by, technology handled one medium or accomplished one or two tasks, through technological convergence, devices are now able to present and interact with a ample array of media.





Technological convergence also leads to devices that are designed purposely to substitute a number of dissimilar devices. The Apple iPod, for example, while firstly conceived of as a portable music player, is now touted equally as a moveable video player, photo album, and radio tuner. Cell phones, as well, have moved far beyond their beginnings as simple voice announcement devices and now offer the functionality of personal music players, digital cameras, and text messenger systems as well. Technological convergence in the last few years has resulted in devices that not only interact with the media they are primarily designed to handle, but also with a number of other formats. For case in point, the XBox video game console has as its most important purpose the playing of console games, but it is also capable to play back video and music and to connect to the Internet. In the same way, most modern DVD players are able not only of playing DVDs, but also of playing music CDs, playing encoded video in formats such as DIVX or VCD, and playing DVD music, displaying photos from photo CDs.





In times gone by the revolution in the Agricultural era this is the science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock.. The demand for biofuel feedstock fundamentally increase the amount of crop dry substance required to make happy both its established use and new demand. on the whole adjusting the allocation of crop biomass among competing demands will not provide somewhere to stay enough feedstock to achieve renewable goals. A new energy strategy must include maximizing the capture and use of light and CO2 available on arable land and then increase the efficiency of input use of dry matter. Effective policies and educational efforts will stimulate rapid adoption of current agronomic technologies to expand the productivity and efficient input use. In order to advance agro-ecosystem production beyond that achievable with existing practices, new knowledge, new systems, and new genetic resources must be created, and incentives for continued discovery must be provided. The decrease of petroleum supply and the concerns regarding global warming have generated a new world view regarding energy demand. The replacement of the fossil energy system for new cheap to run and environmental sustainable strategies is growing especially in what regards the more expensive traditional energy sources. More than a few government agencies and working groups have been planning the lessen of fossil fuels consumption in the short term and substituting them for renewable energy.





The widespread trend has been the stable development each year of the cost - performance of computer systems, based on enhancements in their essential technologies and gears. At the same time the concentration of on the go components has also greater than before at a firm rate, such that memory and disk sizes of a given put together twice over every few years. In a most important study of the leading company, determined that information technology was noticeably diverse from all other major item for consumption types, since over a ten more years period it showed a twenty five fold over enhancement of the relative prices of technology and labor compared to a 1.4 fold step up for the next six most ready for accomplishment technologies. This fundamental trend in technology development has been plotted and unsurprising from the near the start of 1960s, and despite the fact that specific technologies have changed that is the replacement of semiconductor memory in place of magnetic cores, the primary trend seems to be laid down for at smallest amount the next ten years resulting in computer systems of a precise performance keep on to decrease in price, still increasing computational performance in a given sized wrap up, ever increasing capacities of on line storeroom, greater than ever functionality in fundamental systems example like imaging, graphics, and shorter product life cycles. In excess of time computers have become all the time more has been affordable, making them easy to get more and more people and repeatedly increasing the variety of applications that are cost effective to computerize the entities that is concerned. In addition, some way of expressing this adjustment is to think about the primary users and role of computers at different times. I will elaborate some of the changes over time like in 1960s for the most part used for science especially in heavy computation and accounting functions that is recurring data processing. The large main frame computers needing out of the ordinary environments in operating in batch mode. Also in 1970s the emergence of mini - computers are very welcoming. The proliferation into departments for specific functions example manufacturing management. The time sharing with several terminals per system became so handy for individuals but terminals only is to be having to a small fraction of the work force. On the other hand, in 1980s the coming out of personal computer and communications has been the turning point of all times. Terminals surrounded by get in touch with a large amount of employees. Applications extended to a lot of office functions, including budgeting and analysis like spreadsheets, word processing and latterly electronic mail and database. Increasing self - determination off main-stream computing from a central Information System management group. And in 1990s the increasing combination of dissimilar departmental computer systems or unified systems. Applications now extend between departments and even among organizations. Multiple networks turn out to be interconnected. Portable computers as well as computers at home. Applications to be presented for virtually for every business purposes.
For some other point of view, that the focus of Information Technology has transformed from the computation such like data processing to communication such in information handling with an ongoing shift towards cognition: the computer support for knowledge work. More tools are emerging and becoming more techy that can aid thinking and understanding, the organizing and giving out of information and the development of knowledge that is via computer conferencing, systems modeling or flow chart. At the side of the trends in systems have been related trends in architectures and software and multimedia. There have been persistent improvements in simplifying the stage at which computers are programmed and of offering more functionality and features. Thus an end users in the present days are using Macros in a spread sheet language like Excel, that is doing high level programming that carries out statistical functions and exploits the graphics and real - time facilities of the computer. The assortment of functional subsystems just like storage that has led to a separation of the different functionality taken as a whole system and following development of architectures. These endow with a consistent way for the different functional elements to activate with each other. The conception of system has now extended to a greater network and broadcasting area from area, so that architectures now take account of clients the users PC and host servers for databases, printers, communications and lot more that be in touch in standardized ways. Computer trends have also led to changes in the roles of users and Information Technology specialists, with significant changes in the role of the MIS function. From controlling most computing in an organisation for two decades, the MIS departments lost much of their power to business units and departments in the last few years. Those MIS departments that stay behind and having not been outsourced, are very much consultants, service providers and enablers to the businesses. Whereas the dominant MIS issues in the near the beginning in 1980s related to technology for instances like software productivity, at the present similar surveys give you an idea about that partnership with the business, and the strategic influence of Information Technology now top the list. One other continuing trend is the shift of value in an overall system from hardware to software and at this moment to services and especially in project and consulting services that lend a hand to users that gain the maximum advantage from their Information Technology venture. A prime problem facing Information Technology professionals is running and monitoring their collected works of resources with multiple vendor, specific and disparate tools, which keeps Information Technologies in operational costs high and the ability to computerize tasks not possible. To put off business growth from devolving into Information Technology disorder, administrators require a single, consolidated system they can trust and rely on. For example the Dorado Software Redcell OpsCenter is an allpurpose management system designed to combine Information Technology resource management of different vendor, vast technology environments. Redcell OpsCenter add to good organization and productivity while reducing administration costs from beginning to end the automation of key ready tasks and intellectual monitoring of services and devices and in a long-established and virtualized multi environment that includes various computer devices. OpsCenter provides functions such as automated device, link, and service discovery; CMDB inventory; health and performance monitoring; free-form configuration task execution; and reporting. As quoted from the source.




Now for me and my follow technoprenuer the challenge is to us in how can we use the trends and the convergences of time.


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