2021 was a big year for tech. We saw a series of innovations including a Facebook change towards creating a global metaverse. But much of the hype in 2021 will more likely turn into action next year.
So, what are some of the trends you should be watching out for in tech in 2022? First, one thing to expect is increased government efforts to break up big tech. The Biden administration has made a few moves in this over the past year but nothing major has been announced.
We expect there to be a more concerted effort in 2022 by the administration and its antitrust bodies to reduce the power of big tech companies. In Europe, 2021 saw increased regulations for large tech companies like Uber, Google, and others. We also saw unprecedented antitrust fines issued against major US tech giants. We expect this trend to continue in 2022.
Secondly, there will also be the race to the metaverse. When Facebook decided to change its name to Meta, the message was clear. Mark Zuckerberg and the team here are trying to create a virtual digital universe that will be fully interactive.
It sounds too good to be true but Facebook has made major moves in this area. The social media giant and its Oculus VR subsidiary have been building some augmented reality headsets that will be crucial for the metaverse.
We are also starting to see other major tech giants like Google setting themselves up to take advantage of this. Although we may not see a fully-fledged metaverse in 2022, there will surely be a lot of progress made towards that.
Thirdly, 2022 will bring more and more interconnectivity among devices. The idea of the Internet of Things or IoT has been a huge part of new tech innovations over the past three years or so. We expect this to surge even further in the new year.
Most of this will be concentrated on the smartphone. In essence, people will have more options to connect more devices to their smartphones and control them remotely. It will also be interesting to see how electric vehicles will perform in 2022. So far, we have not yet achieved widespread adoption of EVs. But some of the biggest car companies in the world have already invested in EVs. It's no longer about Tesla.
Also, government policy is incentivizing the adoption of EVs and as such, 2022 may be the year when electric mobility finally becomes more mainstream in the US and other countries in the Western world. Finally, the chip shortage that we saw in 2021 will not abate.
The supply chain crisis that has largely been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic will ease of course. But chip shortages will still be there in 2022, something that will pose a huge barrier in industries that rely on these devices. However, the chip problem is likely to be much more manageable for most firms compared to last year.
