Smartphones maintained their strong popularity throughout the 2010s, along with the arrival of tablets. Apple Inc. launched the iPad in 2010, its first tablet computer, which offered multi-touch interaction. The iPad became an immediate bestseller and only months after its release became the best selling tech product in history.[7] By the mid-2010s, almost all smartphones were touchscreen-only, and Android and iPhone smartphones dominated the market.[8]
Throughout the early 2010s, sales for PCs declined in favor of tablet computers and laptop convertibles;[9] in 2012, tablet and smartphone sales overtook netbooks and Samsung overtook Nokia for the first time as the largest mobile phone maker in the world;[10][11] in 2013 in developed countries, smartphone sales surpassed feature phones.[12]
In April 2019, South Korea became the first country to adopt 5G broadband.[13]Verizon launched its 5G services in the United States just hours later, along with disputing South Korea's claim of becoming the world's first country with a 5G network.[14] The United Kingdom's first 5G mobile network became operational on 30 May, initially covering parts of six cities.[15]
In 2011, more than 2 billion people used the Internet,[16] one billion mobile broadband users predicted and 4.6 billion people worldwide were subscribed to mobile phones,[17] and Americans spent more time using mobile apps than using the World Wide Web.[18]
Social media continuously gained prominence through the convenience of mobile apps, including the services of WhatsApp, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder, Vine, and TikTok being released throughout the decade. Facebook and Twitter, both of which were released in the 2000s, were still among the most popular social media platforms in the world.[19] Social media offered massive reach to mainstream audiences for both individuals and organizations unseen before, facilitating phenomena such as influencer marketing.[20][21]
Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, gained ground as a digitally alternative way to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies also expanded the usage and boundaries of Blockchain.
During the decade, 3D printing, 3D modeling, and 3D scanners became increasingly popular, in which the technologies enabled users to join or solidify certain materials to create a concrete three-dimensional object. The 3D printer industry gained over $7 billion in sales.[27]
Wireless headphones saw technological advancements and a large growth in usage.[28]
In the mid-late portion of the decade, 4K resolution was implemented through high-definition displays and gained traction into more U.S. homes in a much faster adoption rate than that of Full HD (1080p).[34]
In 2016, scientists at MIT created the first five-atom quantum computer with the potential to crack the security of traditional encryption schemes.[35]
The number of IoT devices increased 31% year-over-year to 8.4 billion in the year 2017[38] and it was estimated that there will be 30 billion devices by 2020.[39]
Electric and hybrid vehicles became popular in many countries in the Western world during the decade. Notable electric vehicles include the Chevrolet Volt, which became the world's top selling plug-in hybrid of all time with over 100,000 units sold in 2015.[48] Other hybrid vehicles have also been noted such as the Porsche Panamera and BMW i3.
Self-driving cars, while still in their infancy, were widely tested throughout the 2010s with significant progress. Google developed Waymo, the world's first self-driving car, to be licensed for use on public roads in 2011.[49] In 2018, a woman in Tempe, Arizona became the first recorded casualty of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle.[50]
Spaceflight became increasingly privatized, including crewed spaceflight. SpaceX captures a significant share of the commercial launch market with Falcon 9.[56][57] Falcon 9 became the first rocket to land its booster propulsively for reuse, in 2019 most flights reused boosters. Several other companies started working on partially reusable rockets while SpaceX started development of a fully reusable rocket, Starship. Towards the end of the decade around 100 companies were developing rockets for the small satellite market,[58] some have made test flights and Rocketlab's Electron made multiple commercial flights.[59] The Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. SpaceX and Boeing developed commercial crewed spacecraft for orbital flights (SpaceX Dragon 2, Starliner), Dragon 2 made its first crewed flights in 2020. Blue Origin develops the crewed New Shepard for suborbital flights. Virgin Galactic develops a spacecraft for suborbital flights and performs first crewed flights. NASADawn probe was the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies,[60] the first spacecraft to visit either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to orbit a dwarf planet,[61] arriving at Ceres in March 2015, a few months before New Horizons flew by Pluto in July 2015.
Other notable developments in astronomy and spaceflight over the decade included:
2012: SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft became the first private commercial spacecraft to attach to the International Space Station, the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with another spacecraft.[64]
2015: NASA's New Horizons probe became the first spacecraft to reach Pluto, completing its main mission.[72]
2015: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed after a launch, making it the first rocket to successfully return and perform a vertical landing.[73]
During this decade artificial intelligence based on deep learning neural networks experienced rapid advancement, resulting in multiple practical applications in diverse fields such as speech and image recognition, social network moderation, virtual assistants, surveillance, healthcare or even art generation.[99] In 2016, Google artificial intelligence program AlphaGo beat human grandmaster in the game of Go for the first time.[100]
Legal issues
In August 2010, Oracle sued Google for copyright and patent infringement over the use of Java-related technology in Google's popular Android operating system for smartphones and tablet computers. Oracle asserted Google was aware that they had developed Android without a Java license and copied its APIs, creating the copyright violation. Oracle cited patents related to the Java technology created by Sun and now owned by Oracle that Google should have been aware of.[101][102]
Collaborative source code sharing website GitHub becomes in 2011 the world's most popular open source hosting site,[103] after in the previous decade attaining the title of the world's most popular Git hosting site.[104]
In 2019, a robot is developed at MIT that can do multiple experiments in fluid dynamics at high speed.[109]
Organisms
Researchers at Harvard report the creation of "cyborgorganoids", which consist of 3D organoids grown from stem cells, with embedded sensors to measure activity in the developmental process.[110]
Genetics
In 2019, Scientists announce a new form of DNA, named Hachimoji DNA, composed of four natural and four unnatural nucleobases. Benefits of such an eight-base DNA system may include an enhanced ability to store digital data, as well as insights into what may be possible in the search for extraterrestrial life.[111][112]
In 2019, Researchers design an inhalable form of messenger RNAaerosol that could be administered directly to the lungs to help treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis.[115]
Hsu, Chin-Lung; Lin, Judy Chuan-Chuan (2016). "An empirical examination of consumer adoption of Internet of Things services: Network externalities and concern for information privacy perspectives". Computers in Human Behavior. 62: 516–527. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.023.
Jeff Cobb (4 November 2015). "GM Sells Its 100,000th Volt in October". HybridCars.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.About 102,000 units of the Volt/Ampera family have been sold worldwide by the end of October 2015.