Top Digital & Tech Trends to Follow in 2020

Two thousand nineteen has been a dynamic year in terms of technologies – and 2020 won’t be any different! In hopes of guiding you in your digital decision-making process for future projects and putting the latest innovations into perspective, we’ve put together a report – outlining which tech trends are worth looking out for this year.

We’ve based this report off the history of IT innovation as well as upcoming technology market predictions to create a solid hypothesis for future technology trends. Also included in this report is an interview with Francis Nappez, CTO of Blablacar.

So, grab a cup of coffee, find a comfortable spot, and here are the key tech trends to follow in 2020.

Learn more about 2020 Tech Trends, download the eBook for free!

Main Tech Releases in 2020

From the 2020 roadmap we’ve removed techs that increment minor versions.

In 2020, we’ll be awaiting some major releases from .NET 5, Ruby 3, and HTTP/3 that will definitely shake things up in the tech industry. Mobile development is on the rise as well – with Swift, Android, and Xamarin all launching new versions in the first and second quarters of 2020.

Python and PHP can also expect to keep their position in the big leagues – for now, even though they haven’t announced any significant changes for the next year. Interestingly, these are the only two major programming languages that won’t release new versions in 2020, leaving some to wonder,

“Without a major release this year, will PHP and Python’s popularity plateau?”

(Please note that this roadmap is not exhaustive and some technologies still have yet to announce the launch of new products.)

Is JAVA Still a Thing?

JAVA is still the single most popular coding language because it is multi-purpose and used to create cross-platform applications. However, this technology has seen a decline in popularity since 2004, according to Google Trends. This downturn can be largely attributed to the mobile disruption. For the last few years, we’ve bore witness to 2 new JAVA version launches per year – it remains to be seen whether these releases will have been innovative enough to help boost JAVA’s popularity.

New Programming Languages on the Horizon

While new languages such as Ballerina and Dark are not trending at the moment, we’re keeping an eye on their potential for big innovation.

Ballerina is an open-source programming language and platform for coders to write software easily for the cloud-era application. Ballerina aims to bring in the facilities of distributed computing as part of the application.

Dark is a programming language for building backend applications while removing “accidental complexity” in coding – or in other words, to build “deployless” backends. Even if Dark is still in its experimental stages, the emergence of such tools points to new possibilities in programming.

Want to read more about new programming languages? Download our free eBook about Tech Trends in 2020.

Is WebAssembly the Next Big Thing for Web Development?

WebAssembly provides developers with a way to run code written in multiple languages on the web at near-native speed, which has never been possible before now. Today, WebAssembly is already supported by most browsers. We just might be able to expect the first scientifically-enhanced user apps by 2020 – and that’s only the beginning.

Is React Still the Front-Runner in Front-End Technologies?

Although React is, on the surface, more widely appreciated by Front-End developers because of its flexibility and simplicity, stats show Front-End developers continue to support React and Angular equally.

Let’s look at the StackOverflow survey:

These figures are confirmed by Google Trends.

Is also bears mentioning that in the first quarter of 2020, Vue.JS will release its latest version, Vue.JS 3,0. This release will more than likely affect its more popular front-end framework counterparts, React and Angular, who will only dole out routine releases (Angular 10 and 11, React 18).

Will Progressive Unite Mobile & Web Development?

Progressive is a web application that uses web capabilities to deliver a mobile-like experience to users.

The adoption of Progressive has only just started and will continue to spread in 2020. In just a few short years – we may even get to see a technology like this as the norm. Can you imagine?

What about Machine Learning Frameworks?

TensorFlow is still the most popular framework in Machine Learning, according to Google Trends. But, it’s worth mentioning that PyTorch’s popularity is steadily increasing. We can also note that PyTorch is the machine learning framework most used in the field of academia.

Cloud Wars

As you might know, cloud doesn’t only refer to servers that are accessed over the Internet, but umbrellas a broad range of technologies. After disrupting infrastructure technologies and practices, Cloud platforms are now changing the game in terms of digital and even programming practices.

Want to learn more about the tech trends of 2020? Download our free eBook and read the entire report.