Predicting Trends in the Consumer Market

It’s been a relentless period in the tech industry, with non-stop news and announcements — at CCS Insight, we’ve been covering it all. But now that the dust has started to settle on the latest flurry of new devices, services and technologies, it’s time to take stock and work out what matters, and what comes next.

On that note, there’s no better time to register for CCS Insight’s Predictions for 2024 and Beyond event, which kicks off on Tuesday 10 October. Our three-day online event is free to attend, and recaps many of the major topics across the tech industry. Off the back of these trends, our team of analysts will be delivering our hottest takes and expectations for the future in our predictions for next year and beyond.

Day One is essential viewing for anyone interested in the consumer market. We’ll be placing consumers at the heart of the conversation and looking at personalized experiences in technology, exploring what’s coming next in smart home, connected devices and virtual and augmented reality. It’s a day all about how technology is playing a role in transforming our daily lives and is based on our fantastic depth of research across this area.

My colleague Kester Mann will lead the day, kicking off the hour by sharing some of this year’s consumer and connectivity predictions. He’ll then be joined by Ben Wood and Parul Saxena to discuss changing perceptions of the latest consumer tech. The discussion will review some of the leading findings from the Connected Consumer Radar, our bi-monthly survey that explores intended device purchases, interest in device repairability and the green agenda, the wider economic picture and consumers’ financial security amid ongoing uncertainty, as well as attitudes to novel devices. We’ll be sharing some fascinating insights from this area along with some gems from the research.

Next up is an interview between Kester and Marc Allera, CEO of UK operator EE. During the discussion, Marc will share his views on the state of the UK telecom market and give his take on our predictions that could have the greatest impact on telecom operators.

BT has long supported our Predictions events, helping to shape our view of how the consumer market is evolving. The perspective the company can bring is vast thanks to its extensive customer touchpoints. As an established industry leader and spokesperson, Marc’s perspective as the CEO of one of Europe’s leading operators is a headline attraction on the first day of the event and isn’t to be missed.

One of the segments I can’t help but promote is my session with Ben, where we delve into some of the trends we’re seeing in the extended reality segment. It’s been a transformative year with the launch of the Meta Quest 3 and PlayStation VR2, alongside the unveiling of the Apple Vision Pro, and there are some serious questions to consider as a result. What are the strategies of these players for the coming year, and what will be the “killer apps”? Even more intriguingly, who will win and who will lose? Although we can’t claim to have all the answers, we have some thought-provoking predictions about where things might go over the coming years. If you’re curious about the future of spatial computing, I’d recommend tuning in.

We’ll also be delving into smart home and wearables, where Kane McKenna will join the conversation to tell us about what’s happening in the personalized technology space. We’ve often spoken about “ambient computing” at previous Predictions events, referring to technologies that quietly work in the background to make our lives easier and more productive. We’ll be turning to this again as we look at the ways that wearables — the devices that are literally closest to us — can help us to be healthier and more comfortable in our day-to-day lives, exploring how the overlap between these devices and our smart homes could lead to a new paradigm of personalized experiences.

The first day of Predictions is essential viewing for anyone with a passing interest in the consumer market or any of the technologies I’ve referenced in this piece. The connected consumer engages with so many different types of technology daily, so it’s harder than ever to separate one category from another. With our Predictions event, we aim to give you the best possible overview of what’s to come. Register here.