In mid-December 2021, ABI Research analysts published a study identifying trends that will shape the technology market in 2022, and trends that, although attracting a huge amount of speculation and comments, are less likely to affect the technology market, among them metaverses and companion robots.
What won't happen in 2022?
The metaverse will not appear fully formed
Despite all the announcements and investments, the metaverse will not appear in 2022 or, according to ABI Research, during a typical 5-year forecast window. The metaverse is still more of a buzzword and a vision than a formed end goal with a specific date for real full-fledged use. By the end of 2021, there are a number of technology companies creating their own version of the "metaverse", but this metaverse is not fully interconnected, does not yet widely use open standards and, of course, has not fully embraced augmented reality (XR) (some would also add crypto-economics to the list, this idea has also not yet been implemented).
There will be no boom in the deployment of peripheral computing
Peripheral computing, both edge computing with Multiple Access (MEC) and general peripheral computing, will continue to increase in the number of deployments. However, deployments in 2022 will be mostly mission-critical, committed by the very first users, and not the start of the expected boom. Edge computing use cases and financial viability are closely linked to 5G cellular networks, both public and private. The availability of 5G services loyal to the price, on which peripheral computing will develop, has not yet become a global reality. As a result, the implementation of peripheral computing will be slower than expected.
Companion robots will not be widely distributed
After several years when leading companies engaged in social robotics either closed stores or abandoned their commercial offers, investments in this segment resumed in 2021, and the potential of companion robots was also revised. Amazon's launch of its first social robot, Astro, has certainly attracted a lot of attention. However, despite the huge potential of social and related robotics, 2022 will not be the breakthrough year that the industry hopes for, despite the scale, prices, and awareness that a player like Amazon can bring to the emerging technology market.
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