Before there are predictions, there should always be some reflection. That’s where we review the year that was before the year that is to come.

As ever, let’s do the simple act of the marking my score card; the 2016 predictions.

• The new iPhones will be announced on the 7th of September and should be available in stores by the 23rd. This will be the iPhone 7 with a completely new design, two sizes and we should finally see a smaller version again
  Not 100% on these. Launch date was right, as was name.
  The in store release was a week earlier and the design, well it was an evolution of the iPhone 6’s from 2015,. The biggest change being the two different types of black. 
• There will be a new iPad, that matches the processor of the iPad Pro. This may come in March / April. If it doesn’t then expect a full iPad refresh including the Mini and the Pro in October. (The iPad line-up is a bit of a mess right now, so expect a product cul).
  Yep, we got the iPad Pro 9.7 inch in March, with extra fancy display. No love for the Mini though, that product call isn’t far away. 
• There will be a new Apple Watch. It may be announced at WWDC for availability at the same time as the new iPhones.
  Turns out it was announced, just with the iPhones in September.
• The next versions of OS X, iOS, Watch OS and TvOS will be announced at WWDC which is expected to be the week commencing the 6th of June.
  All ture, just a week later than expected and including Siri for macOS, the new name for OS X.
• There will be nods to a new product line or / and the new video service.
  The new TV app on Apple TV kind of counts here (although it’s only available in the US at the moment).

As for the rest of the 2016, predictions, let’s take a look.

I imagined a rough year for Android. Well, it was hard to call it a great year. Exploding Samsung’s, Cynogen winding down and the whole Android manufacturer community being superseded by the very people that make their OS, Google. The new entry to the market has outshone every Android launch this year and if this is the new tact from Google, expect them to every year. Let’s face it, they have the hardware people now and services that can only be contested by the likes of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

Speaking of Microsoft, they spent the year distracting people with hardware ideas whilst their software and operating systems offerings seemed to fall by the wayside. Seriously, anyone in a work environment going to use Cortana? What not make the fastest, lightest operating system in the world that businesses would adore? I’ve stopped trying to answer the problems of Microsoft since they passed me up for CEO.

Well, Oculus, Valve and Sony all made commercially available VR headsets and Microsoft entered the fray with the Hololense. When I said that gaming would lead the way, I couldn’t have been more right. If you go in to a Game store in the UK, you can pay to play on all of the offerings before you make a purchase. Google have also developed their smartphone, the pixel, to be a mobile VR machine.

Lastly, I hoped that 2016 would be a year of positive surprises for tech and it sort of has been for some and a year of explosions and declining sales for others. The year of turmoil that 2016 became, affected every strata of life and tech included. Right now, let’s hope 2017 can be a little quieter and have fewer negative shocks.