“The current pace of technological development is exerting profound changes on the way people live and work.� (White Paper, 2017)
CONTENTS Introduction... 1 - Including Trend Cartogram
Key Elements and Impacts... 6 - Including Fourth Industrial Diagram Consequences and Summary... 10 Works Cited... 11 Image Accreditation... 12 CASE STUDY... 14 Works Cited... 20 Image Accreditation... 20
Technology has grown into modern day culture, it has become one with us and is one of the largest contributing factors of this macro-trend. Command & Control is the predicted macro-trend which derives from the millennials companionship with the digital world. Named the “always-connected generation” (Bull, 2010), millennials are continuously switched on with technology and as the generations grow, technology needs to be just as switched on. Titled ‘Command & Control, the name itself is inspired from Brad Harrison who stated that “Millennial and gen z consumers expect to find what they want, when they want with just a few touches on their mobile phone – their life’s
centre.”
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Innovators – Google Drivers – Samsung, Generation Z, fourth industrial revolution. Impact – Interaction without physical touch, new magazine formats, sustainable (less use of paper) Consequence – Loss of physical copies/controls, print copies would become more expensive due to limited supply and demand and the technology needed to create this technology needs creating/testing. Future – Sensory technology, holographic magazines and media
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By definition command is defined as ‘dominate’ and control is there defined as ‘the power to influence or direct people’s behaviour or the course of events’ (Oxford Dictionairy, 2018). A great example of the reasoning for this title besides the direct quotation is that technology can be said to be created with the future in mind and that it is controlled via the consumer, influencers etc. As it is already known, technology inhabits day to day life, the fourth industrial revolution (Schwab, 2016) was said to be ‘powered by new innovations’ ranging from physical to digital worlds and so on. Predicted macro-trend; Command & Control looks towards the results of the fourth industrial revolution such as sensory technology, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) (Churchill, 2018).
Figure 1 - Diagram of how the industrial revolutions have evolved (Churchill, 2018).
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“We have yet to grasp fully the speed and breadth of this new revolution.� (Abnett, 2016) Klaus Schwab referring to the fourth industrial revolution.
Key elements of this trend are influenced by technology giants such as Google and Samsung whilst technology and millennials are driving alongside being the audience for this macro-trend. Two of the largest technology companies (Forbes, 2017) both known for their imaginative and innovative concepts have had upcoming patents (Rowley, 2016) that really broaden the possibilities of new technology. Command & Control also looks at how technology can be combined with different industries to attract a future audience alongside maintaining the millennials. Large impacts can be concluded from this trend alongside the expectations of the fourth industrial revolution; the main impact being interaction without physical touch. Samsung confirmed in their future shaping patents that holograms are coming (Rowley, 2016) which could mean different types of accessing or reading media especially combined with Googles upcoming projects such as Soli and Ara which include sensory gestures and modular devices (Chokkattu, 2016). These assured technological advancements could expand within the fashion industry and the media industry creating new formats for magazines and how they are accessed such as maintaining the physicality just through advanced technology. If paper copies soon become obsolete then the new formats could be considered more sustainable as there isn’t as much paper usage or waste and no need to recycle which could appeal to a much wider audience.
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“Neither technology nor the disruption that comes with it is an exogenous force over which humans have no control. All of us are responsible for guiding its evolution, in the decisions we make on a daily basis as citizens, consumers, and investors.� (Schwab, 2016).
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Consequences of the macro-trend could range from printed media becoming more expensive than digital or holographic media due to the limited stock or supplies. Having a limited supply can gain an increased interest due to the minimal copies and ‘limited edition’ feel or the limited supply gains no audience which results in loss of physical copies. According to the Exadel Innovations Team to integrate the internet (of things) and AR technology, the speed would have to have increased from 4G to 5G (Exadel Innovations Team, 2017). An increase of wireless speeds will inevitably increase just like it has in the past from 3G to 4G but the issue with this is that currently only smaller prototype devices are being created that run this speed and there isn’t any confirmation on when it will be used worldwide which could mean some of the technologies fitting within the prediction take longer to be developed. Introducing a predicted trend that has the ability to combine multiple industries i.e. fashion, media and technology for a more data driven and consumer friendly outcome. The future of Command & Control could include further advancements within sensory technology and the gestures feature via Google (Google, 2014). Alongside this could include holographic technology influencing print media and how that is displayed and progresses. This macro-trend predicts a technologically dominated and controlled future that foresees parts of the expected results from the fourth industrial revolution being revealed (Schwab, 2016).
Works Cited Abnett, K. (2016, August 16). What does the fourth industrial revolution mean for fashion? Retrieved from Business of Fashion: https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/voices/discussions/what-does-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-mean-for-fashion/fashions-fourth-industrial-revolution-2 Bull, G. (2010). The Always-Connected Generation. Learning & Leading with Technology, 28-29. Chokkattu, J. (2016, May 25). 6 underrated Google projects you may have missed. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/awesome-google-moonshot-projects/ Churchill, A. (2018, March 8). The fourth industrial revolution is coming – here’s how to thrive. Retrieved from Raconteur: https://www.raconteur.net/business/fourth-industrial-revolution-coming-heres-thrive Exadel Innovations Team. (2017, October 21). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Integration of AR and IoT. Retrieved from Exadel: https://exadel.com/news/fourth-industrial-revolution-ar-iot/ Forbes. (2017, N/A N/A). World's 25 Biggest Tech Companies. Retrieved from Forbes : https://www.forbes.com/ forbes/welcome/?toURL=https%3A//www.forbes.com/pictures/591b9072a7ea434078d412be/microsoft/&refURL=https%3A//www.google.co.uk/&referrer=https%3A//www.google.co.uk/ Google. (2014). Project Soli. Retrieved from Google ATAP: https://atap.google.com/soli/ Oxford Dictionairy. (2018, N/A N/A). Control. Retrieved from Oxford Dictionairy : https://en.oxforddictionaries. com/definition/control Rowley, C. (2016, May 13). 7 Samsung patents that will shape the future of smartphones Read more at http://www. trustedreviews.com/opinion/samsung-patents-that-will-shape-the-future-of-smartphones-2940383#gMbRKeslsP2ZTBLo.99. Retrieved from Trusted Reviews : http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinion/samsung-patents-that-willshape-the-future-of-smartphones-2940383 Rowley, C. (2016, May 13). 7 Samsung patents that will shape the future of smartphones Read more at http://www. trustedreviews.com/opinion/samsung-patents-that-will-shape-the-future-of-smartphones-2940383#gMbRKeslsP2ZTBLo.99. Retrieved from Trusted Reviews: http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinion/samsung-patents-that-willshape-the-future-of-smartphones-2940383 Schwab, K. (2016, January 14). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond. Retrieved from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-meansand-how-to-respond/ Schwab, K. (2016, January 14). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond. Retrieved from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-meansand-how-to-respond/ White Paper. (2017). Technology and Innovation for the Future of Production: Accelerating Value Creation. Colog-
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Image Accreditation Churchill, A. (2018, March 5). The fourth industrial revolution is coming – here’s how to thrive. Retrieved from Raconteur: https:// www.raconteur.net/business/fourth-industrial-revolution-coming-heres-thrive Google, A. (2014, July N/A). Soli. Retrieved from Google ATAP: https://atap.google.com/soli/ Pelegrin, W. (2015, January 21). Microsoft’s HoloLens headset drops digital creations into real life. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/microsoft-holographic-and-microsoft-hololens-news/ The White Report. (2016, March 23). Virtual And Augmented Reality. Retrieved from The White Report: http://www.thewhitereport.com/technology/virtual-augmented-reality/
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One of the questions that should be considered when new products are created is why should new products be developed? The answers to this can range from consumer needs changing or the product may have reached the end of its own life cycle or even that changes may be needed to stimulate sales increase. Alongside this, new product development has two main approaches – proactive and reactive, proactive is creating a need for a new product and reactive is creating a new product in reaction to something. The reactive approach is how products are created due to trend forecasting influences, this case study will look at how a product has been created and how a trend has influenced its creation and development With the consistent move towards the digital world, was there a possibility of magazines going redundant? (360 Resourcing, 2017) Books, newspapers and magazines seemed to have been replaced by smartphones in the hands of consumers and for the print media industry this could become a problem for sales. Magazines have the option for online subscriptions but if there was more than one subscription, consumers could switch off and not see the point. Due to consumers used to everything at the click of a button, too much spread out subscription content could have become too much hassle for the gen z and millennials (WebMD Health Services, 2016) Consumers are pleased by convenience thanks to the vast advancement of technology which assists with their demands daily, hourly and even by the minute.
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By keeping aware of societal and lifestyle trends such as constant travelling/commuting, consideration for the environment and digital lifestyles, a solution was founded by Per Hellberg. An app called Readly which was named to be the “Spotify of magazines” (Spainer, 2014) was actually inspired by Swedish company Spotify for their system of a single subscription combining all music into one area. The app allows consumers the ability to read 120 magazines at the start for a monthly subscription which now ranges to 2,000 magazines on offer. Hellberg stated that “The traditional magazine isn’t broken” and the app purely replicates the print magazines so that the digital versions just become mirrors of the print versions which is what the consumer still wants. Although the consequence is not the total loss of print magazines, there is a dropping circulation of print magazines which is overtaken by digital copies (Ruddick, 2017), the app itself keeps the costs low and is a more sustainable option in the long run due to the lack of paper.
Figure 1 - Readly Website (Readly, 2018).
Figure 2 - Readly Tablet Application (Ordever, 2016).
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“The advantage for publishers is they receive additional revenue at a time when print circulation continues to fall� Per Hellberg, 2014.
The trend that could have said to have influenced this new product revolves around lifestyle and how it is fast paced and constantly on the move. Consumers have busy lives and they need to be in touch with technology as quickly and effectively as they can be due to its continuing growing pace. The ability to interact with hobbies such as watching and reading whilst commuting makes it easier for consumers, also creating a single place for all their favourite magazines keeps travelling light, compact and user-friendly. The app Readly (Readly, 2018) is a great example of how lifestyle trends such as more commuting i.e. public transport usage and the combined areas of technology and relaxing alongside the decline in print media circulation created an app that was inspired by the public for the public and has gained great popularity.
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Works Cited 360 Resourcing. (2017, N/A N/A). 16 Everyday Things Your Smartphone Has Made Redundant. Retrieved from 360 Resourcing: http://www.360resourcing.co.uk/16-everydaythings-your-smartphone-has-made-redundant/ Readly. (2018, N/A N/A). Readly Home Page. Retrieved from Readly: https://gb.readly. com Ruddick, G. (2017, August 10). News magazines enjoy circulation boost while celebrity titles suffer. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/ aug/10/news-magazines-circulation-celebrity-private-eye-economist Spainer, G. (2014, March 28). Readly app launches in UK with 120 magazines. Retrieved from Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/readly-app-launchesin-uk-with-120-magazines-9220149.html WebMD Health Services. (2016, September 21). Compared to Older Generations, Millennials Are More Likely to Prefer Speed and Convenience over Personal, Comprehensive Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. Retrieved from Prnewswire: https://www. prnewswire.com/news-releases/compared-to-older-generations-millennials-are-more-likely-to-prefer-speed-and-convenience-over-personal-comprehensive-interactions-with-healthcare-professionals-300331519.html
Image Accreditation Hindustantimes. (2017, December 1). Commuters, beware: Travelling daily by underground trains may put you at risk of cancer. Retrieved from Hindustantimes: https://www. hindustantimes.com/fitness/commuters-beware-travelling-daily-by-underground-trainsmay-put-you-at-risk-of-cancer/story-ABcLbMGLbWECY9jw0wBAmM.html Ordever, M. (2016, July 15). Readly – The Must-Have Summer Holiday App . Retrieved from The Purple Pumpkin Blog: https://www.thepurplepumpkinblog.co.uk/readly-themust-have-summer-holiday-app/ Readly. (2018, N/A N/A). Readly Home Page. Retrieved from Readly: https://gb.readly. com
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