The year of uninterrupted browsing

Ashis Dutta Roy

When one tries to look at what mattered in the technology scenario to the Indian consumer in 2017, the answer can be found in the most common sight around: People fiddling with their phones.

It started late last year with the launch of Reliance Jio, the umpteenth mobile phone carrier to break into the crowded market like a bull in a China shop. Its industry disruption is another story but by practically giving away bandwidth for free for its first three months, Jio started a bloodbath in the telecom market, squeezing contemptible corporations to an inch of their life: Hurray for the consumer! The following months saw an unprecedented flashflood of cheap data plans in the market offering never-before amounts of internet to users in India. While people in many developed markets continued struggling with belligerent carriers offering lesser and lesser, the Indian consumer got ridiculous amounts of data in 2017. As of writing, any half-decent post-paid or pre-paid connection these days gets you a ridiculous 1 GB for 4G data every day and unlimited calling within India under Rs 500. Is that swell, or is that swell?

This mad rush had cascading effects. As mobile data got cheaper, the entire industry had to adapt.

The result: Fastest speeds and cheapest rates ever even in home broadband too. Last month, Delhi got the second internet service provider to offer 1 Gbps internet connections.

Catalysed by all that data, came the next big trend this year in Indian tech: The digital payments. There will be plenty of data stories for you to refer to before the end of the year, but the verdict is in. 2017 was the year when the Indian customer got most comfortable in pulling out their cellphone and scanning a code to pay at a Mother Dairy booth.

Unified Payment Interface or UPI is a revolutionary thing. Just how unbelievably easy it has become to sign up for the BHIM app or the ubiquity of Paytm aside, the explosion of places that accepted digital money this year was just fantastic for the future. 

And all of that was tied up nicely with a bow with what seemed like a continuous year of sale in online shopping. As Flipkart and Amazon doubled down on discounts, some like Snapdeal felt the heat. But as one great cricket commentator would say, “in the end, it was you who won”.

Top tech flubs

As Samsung found out last year, technology is great but sometimes things just blow up in your face. Here’s a look at the biggest tech fails of the year.

Snapchat spectacles

Not learning from Google’s Glass debacle, Snapchat went ahead and again put a camera in an eyeglass. Result: Not good.

Juicero

A Bloomberg story shut down this company trying to peddle non-sensical, overpriced bags of pre-packaged juice through their proprietary juice dispenser for rich hipsters.

Pixel 2 XL

From a blue tint to burn-in problems with the screen (most of it blown away out of proportion) gave Google more headaches than it deserved.

Essential PhoneThe Essential Phone promised to be the pinnacle of functionality yet landed with an alarmingly bad camera for a phone priced as high as it.

LeEco

The Chinese company poised to become the next Netflix or Apple or Tesla somehow managed to wind up into one of the biggest corporate bombs of the year. 

What else you’ll remember 2017 for

Dem Bezels (and Dat Notch)

It was the year when all of us stood up and waved a big goodbye to ugly screen borders. Sure, these haven’t left entirely, but now that all major manufacturers — Samsung, Apple, LG, OnePlus, Xiaomi all headlined extremely thin bezels as the defining feature of their smartphones this year — the trend is certainly a norm and not an exception. With it, came the wider 18:9 display aspect ratio and in some cases (iPhone X and Essential Phone) a rabble-rousing notch to house the front cameras and other elements. Oh, did we say this trend also spread to laptops and TVs?

Goodbye jack

Sadly, display borders were not the only thing smartphone makers inched towards ditching this year. After Apple’s insanely evil decision to get rid of our favourite 3.5 mm audio port (just to jack up those headphone prices), Google, HTC and even Xiaomi stabbed all music lovers in the back by following suit. In making us say adieu to plug-and-play and hello to Dongle Life, these jerks of companies did what ties with the whole Aadhaar affair as 2017’s biggest moment of someone forcing us to do something we don’t want to do. Expect more manufacturers to jump ship next year, bringing smartphones that are more user-hostile.

OK Google...

...Or Alexa, or Siri, or Bixby — take your pick. Artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants took longer strides in coming closer to our lives this year. Chances are, even the most uninitiated of you are using some form of voice commands on your phone to set alarms and reminders. But they do more — calls, texts and of course, “tell me a joke”. While the whole Internet-of-Things (basically internet-enabled washing machines) hasn’t taken off in India yet, reading Tanmay Bhatt plug Amazon’s Alexa assistant-powered speaker Echo on Twitter made us wonder if we need to get one ourselves.

Computers be clickin’

You might have heard of the Portrait Mode as one of the biggest features of iPhones towards late last year. With data from two back cameras and software trickery, the feature gives you a DSLR-like background blur behind subjects. Samsung, Google, OnePlus and others joined the bandwagon with Google actually pulling it off with one camera. Also, the Google Pixel 2’s camera has been consistently rated the best smartphone camera of 2017. All this has happened not on the back of remarkable advancements in lens or camera tech, but computational photography. A software and data-driven approach, which intelligently makes your photos pop, has been one of the major behind-the-scenes shift in personal photography this year.