Two Years Ago

It is very hard for me to image that barely two years I was writing my meager piece of Windows Phone review. At the time, I was about to ditched my mid-end hTC Windows Phone after almost one year of use. It was my first “big touch screen” phone, I enjoyed it a lot but at the same time hated it for its paltry collection of apps and very buggy OS (typical Microsoft OS I had to admit). Over the two years, I went through a whole cycle of iPhone 5 and now I am on iPhone 6 Plus. 

Two years ago:

- Xiaomi just launched its Mi2 Phone and few outside of China took notice of this company

- Samsung was almost at its mobile phone prime time with GS3 and Note 2

- Angry Bird still dominated the game ranking in every app store

- wearable electronics was this fancy item hip fitness crowd showed off to each other

- Google Glass was all the rage

- SoLoMo was still a thing

Look at now:

- Xiaomi is the largest standalone smartphone company by valuation (although it never positioned itself as a smartphone company, it aspires to be so much bigger). And now analysts are also taking notice of Smartisan, One Plus, IUNI, Oppo, Vivo, Meizu and many more aggressive local OEMs. 

- Samsung has started its decline in market share and profitability almost 6 months ago

- Angry Bird user shrunk from 200M to 60M. No one talks about Zynga anymore and its CEO stepped down. 

- Wearable electronics already went through a mini boom and bust cycle and people finally started to think hard about target application, software, data analytics, and less features more designs. 

- Oculus Rift, VR, and AR is all the rage. It is ironic in the sense that VR headsets look way more ridiculous on one’s head than Google Glass. 

- SoLoMo is something we take for granted. 

It always gives me chills when I see great tech leaders and futurists depicting our future in those 10-20-years old videos. It was exciting to see the future they described unveiling before my eyes, it was equally exciting to think about the milestones we already passed through (earlier than predicted). I feel a great sense of optimism even when I look about two years from today. Perhaps that’s why tech always fascinates me.