The high and low lights of the TechStage editorial team in 2015

It felt like not just one year, but rather ten years – that much has happened in the past twelve months. Do you remember the introduction of the watch? Yes, that was in 2015. And the display on both sides of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge feels like an old hat.

At this point we look back at our very personal high and low lights from the past year.

Daniel

There was not much going on in the mobile market this year, the time of great innovations seems to be over. I'm happy about a really high quality Samsung Galaxy S6 edge and – finally – about a BlackBerry with Android. But where the mail really goes is the area of ​​drones, sorry, the multicopter. They become easier to control, can do more, transport defibrillators to injured people or parcels health home and Review nature parks in order to detect forest fires. And what we saw this year is just the beginning.

And on the downside? Ever faster, ever bigger, ever more? It's frustrating. There is currently a lack of real innovations in the mobile segment. Instead, the manufacturers sell us trifles as paradisiacal apples: more megapixels and more megabytes. And what, please, should I buy from it? As long as a handful of games run smoothly without great demands on the hardware (Hearthstone for example), the web browser and YouTube, I am already satisfied.

The times when you had to buy new smartphones regularly to use the latest apps and features are over. I fear that hardware manufacturers will have to learn this bitterly in the near future. But there is a way out: Dare something again! LG does it with a folding cell phone with Android, BlackBerry has long been bringing an android with a hardware keyboard. More of it – please! At some point there may be the savior from whom the entire industry will benefit for years – just like the switch from resistive to capacitive touchscreens.

Kamal

Smartphones are now ubiquitous. The informed user is of little interest whether the camera has 12, 16 or 20 megapixels. The phone has to bring a good price, decent hardware and software quality and more than sufficient performance. That is important. Innovations are still celebrated, unfortunately they are far too rare. But to put it briefly: We have reached a point where the maximum of the currently available technology has already been reached. The next generation of devices is just around the corner – then a new era begins and we talk again about "there's a lot of room for improvement". So what I want to tell you: in 2015 there were a few smartphones that were really interesting with a few exceptions. So there are no highlights for me in this area.

What interests me more and more over time are new technologies and areas: automated driving, AR, VR, electromobility or smart objects. I am currently in the process of networking my health home. Lights, doors, sensors – all of this is a lot of fun, precisely because you have the central control unit, the smartphone, in your pocket. The expanded use of a smartphone is awesome.

My flop this year are all smartwatches – whether Apple, Android Wear or proprietary. Back in 2014, things weren't going as we had imagined. But that was the beginning, so people were happy to look away. Now a lot of water has flowed up the Elbe and many now have a smartwatch. And how is it? Do you need them? For example, I don't walk back in the middle of my way if I forget my Apple Watch. She is good. I call her more often than I ever imagined. But is she fascinating to me? No I also say the same thing about my watches with Android Wear.

Sameer

My highlights this year in the smartphone area were the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. A nice and handy smartphone with a curved display, very good camera and a stable battery life. The return of BlackBerry with an Android smartphone and a slider-based keyboard is something new. Will it prevail? Let us all hope.

In the technology area, it is Elon Musk with his SpaceX company and the Falcon 9 rocket. It is exciting. And we mustn't forget Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin. These organizations have very clever thoughts and motives. They make it into space and back again – but in a cheap and sustainable way. That's what makes them so special.

I am very happy to hand over the price for the "Flop of the Year" to HTC. For me, it was always a company that dominated the Android segment. But the products this year disappointed. See the One M9 and the One A9 that was added later. What didn't suit me? The satisfying flagship camera and the high price of the mid-range smartphone. I hope 2016 will be better.

Stefan

I don't have a clear favorite for 2015, but I do have a lot of small highlights. I was just as happy about Microsoft's open strategy under Satya Nadella as I was about the numerous AR and VR glasses that will finally hit the market in 2016. I also loved the DxO One clip-on camera.

And back to the smartphones: Even if the curved displays of the Samsung flagships look really chic, I was rather happy about the underdogs, especially about Blackberry's entry into the Android world with the Priv – better late than never, right? And it is also exciting that Gigaset, a local manufacturer, is also involved.

My personal flop for 2015 was the Apple Watch. Instead of revolutionizing a product category here, in my opinion Apple has put together a low-innovation Me-Too product that particularly disappointed me in terms of sensors. The fact that absolute moon prices, typical of the applet, are called for the fancy models does not necessarily help. At least for the time being, Apple has buried my considerations of switching privately from Android to iOS with the watch.

Another big flop for me was Nintendo's first Android app. Instead of a game cracker with Mario, Link or the like, the Japanese console manufacturer has presented a better chat application here. Seriously? So that's not going to happen. Not 2015, not 2016 and not 2017 either.

With this in mind: The TechStage editorial team wishes all readers a peaceful Christmas, a relaxing time between the years and a good start to 2016. May it be an exciting year with many great innovations and surprises.

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