FEATURE EDITOR’S CHOICE
Electronics industry trends for 2021
The challenges of 2020 tested the electronics industry like never before. We’re not out of the woods yet, with supply chain disruption, changing demand and WFH challenges part of our daily lives. Here we talk to Dunstan Power about what major trends the ByteSnap design team have identified as most likely to dominate the electronics industry in 2021
WHAT ELECTRONICS SECTOR WILL SEE THE BIGGEST GROWTH POTENTIAL IN 2021? In response to COVID-19, we are expecting more exciting developments in consumer medical devices; from at home telemedicine devices that save time and money - while limiting exposure to other patients - to smart watches able to monitor for illnesses as well as fitness. The home care market is due for an
explosion in 2021. We see a lot of projects over the next 12 months being related to an increase in remote diagnostics of illnesses, measuring everything from temperature through to falls. We anticipate greater deployment of Machine Learning across connected health as well.
WHAT ELSE HAS COVID-19 INTRODUCED THAT IS HERE TO STAY? Further expansion of gesture recognition: We will see more systems and devices being developed to allow people to use gestures instead of touchscreens. Supporting technologies to drive this
acceleration of gesture recognition are likely to include optical systems, or capacitive touch type sensors; for instance, Microchip has a 3D gesture recognition chip. We can also see people using low-cost cameras and Machine Learning to build these gesture-activated systems. Additionally, greater expansion in
speech recognition systems, we predict, will go hand in hand with the rise of gesture recognition tech this year. We’re already using speech to trigger our personal touch screens, and smart phones, for example. But during 2021 we should see more speech activated systems appearing in public spaces - a
further move away from devices and systems that require touch.
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON COMPONENT SUPPLY? The global pandemic resulted in considerable factory downtime worldwide. Consequently, there was a dip in demand. However, orders spiked again – aggressively – and stock levels have not recovered enough to keep pace with demand. 2021 could bear witness to a global component supply crunch, so it may be prudent to plan ahead to protect project timelines and budgets.
WILL THE LAPTOPS MARKET (ARM) RACE HEAT UP IN 2021? If Apple and Adobe can succeed in producing ARM devices, running native ARM applications that even come close to their x86 siblings, then that might just be a compelling enough line-up for ARM to make a break in the mid-range laptop markets. Success here could see other OEMs and
developers start to produce ARM laptops and applications to follow in Apple's footsteps, improving upon their currently weak ARM line-up. The efficiency of these ARM processors
makes them ideal for students and general-purpose laptop users. Though it’s unlikely they’d be considered for heavy workloads like CAD, gaming or video editing anytime soon, it’s an interesting space to watch as ARM laptops develop over the coming months and years. Will RISC-V edge move further towards
the mainstream, or not? RISC-V ISA, the open standard
instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles, is likely to
continue its march to the mainstream during 2021. We’ve seen the push to develop RISC-V ISA hardware gather pace in recent years. Although there are still some question marks of the maturity of the RISC-V ecosystem, we could experience an even greater acceleration towards RISC-V ISA in 2021 – particularly if ARM is bought out by NVIDIA.
WHAT’S YOUR FINAL THOUGHT ON TRENDS FOR 2021? 2021 might also be the start of an era of AR, which has an exceptional number of use cases but has been limited so far by the hardware requirements. The ability to scan a space and overlay holographic objects, signs or text is particularly attractive for design, engineering, automotive and architecture. For example, instead of following an
IKEA or jet engine manual, you would be able to see a hologram animation overlayed over the object in front of you; interior designers could scan a room and instantly rearrange furniture and decoration to see what it would look like. In addition, Apple’s new iPhone 12
comes kitted with a LiDAR sensor and they say the iPhone 12 Pro has all the hardware requirements for AR support. Also, Samsung and start-up NReal have announced their progress into commercialising lightweight AR headsets, which will make use of the new 5G networks. We believe before the end of 2021 we'll
see more buzz in AR marketing and a rush for budget/mid-range Android phones to start putting LiDAR on their models.
ByteSnap
www.bytesnap.com
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APRIL 2021 | ELECTRONICS
/ ELECTRONICS
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