The 2010s was the decade where the public became a lot more aware of technological advancements and were eager to learn about them and bring them into their daily lives.
Mobile Payment Systems
Mobile payments became far more common during the 2010s as smartphones gained secure chips and contactless payment technology. Widespread public use of this technology only took off once major platforms launched, and retailers upgraded their payment terminals to be compatible with contactless payment. Services such as Apple Pay in 2014 and Google Pay soon after allowed people to store bank cards on their phones and pay by simply holding the device near a reader; this mirrored the growing use of contactless bank cards, which made the transition feel more natural for many people. Security features such as fingerprint or face recognition also reassured users and potential users that transactions could be authorised safely. By the end of the 2010s, paying with a phone or other mobile device had become a normal option in many countries.
The iPad
The iPad was a huge launch, which began sales to the public in January 2010, from Apple; it marked the company’s entry into the tablet market, and it went on to reshape how portable devices could be used by consumers for media, browsing, and other everyday digital tasks like checking 49s results. Although the tablet as a concept had existed for years, earlier attempts struggled with battery life, software limitations, and an inaccessible user interface. Apple’s approach successfully combined technologies it had refined through the iPhone and MacBook into a large, touch screen device built around being simple and easy to use.
VR Headsets
Early ideas of virtual reality headsets date back decades, but in terms of practical consumer products, the headsets emerged in the 2010s as display resolution, sensors, and processing power were developed further.
Modern devices combine small high-resolution screens positioned close to the user’s eyes with lenses that widen the field of view. The built in technology, like accelerometers, which track head orientation and speed, allows for the virtual scene to shift naturally as the user looks around, this technology has continued to develop quickly. Many systems also now include an ecosystem of other compatible products like hand controllers or finger tracking, which enables interactions with virtual objects, too.
Motion sickness, headaches, and dizziness are common experiences amongst users, even after a short time. This is because your external senses are tricked into thinking that you are moving, but your internal body and inner ear experience no change in movement. Natural reflexes assume there must be something wrong with your body because of this, and trigger nausea.
Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants
Intelligent personal assistants began to become mainstream additions to consumer technology during the early 2010s, when advances in artificial intelligence and speech recognition made natural voice interaction more practical on phones and tablet devices. In 2011, when the Siri feature was launched by Apple on the iPhone 4S, it introduced millions of users to the concept of speaking to their phones to send messages, set reminders, or search the web. Other major technology companies quickly followed, with Google Assistant being formally launched in 2016, and Amazon Alexa being released in 2014 alongside the first Echo smart speaker, bringing voice assistants into people’s homes.
Since their initial release, intelligent personal assistants have expanded rapidly across devices and platforms. Microsoft Cortana arrived for Windows Phones, and later Windows PCs, and Samsung Bixby launched in 2017 on Galaxy smartphones and smart appliances. Over time, these assistants have gained more conversational abilities, third-party integrations, and smart-home control features, which have moved them beyond simple voice commands towards more contextual and personalised digital help across phones, speakers, cars, and household devices.
Drones
The shift of drone availability in the 2010s opened up entirely new possibilities for the public, particularly allowing travellers, filmmakers, and hobbyists, as well, to capture landscapes and overhead footage that previously would have required cranes or even helicopters. At this time, drones also became an activity pursued in their own right, with enthusiasts flying for fun or competitive drone racing.
As reliability improved, drones’ commercial uses expanded into surveying, agriculture, construction monitoring, and emergency response, where they are a great tool for providing fast, low-cost aerial data collection. Continued advances in their technology mean that obstacle sensing, subject tracking, and autonomous flight are steadily making drones safer, quieter, and more intelligent, which is ensuring their place as one of the defining consumer technologies to emerge in the past decade.
3D Printing
When 3D printing became a technology that was accessible to the public, it opened up new possibilities, from customisation and repair of existing items to enabling people to produce cheap decorative items or prototypes without traditional manufacturing methods. Online libraries of printable models also emerged, meaning users could download designs and produce them at home. While it is still slower and more limited in materials than a mass production line, consumer 3D printing has become a lot more accessible to the public and reliable over the past decade, which reflects a broader shift towards personal, on-demand fabrication.
Summary of Important Technological Advancements Since The 2010s
The 2010s, as a decade, stand out as the time period where emerging technologies moved firmly into the mainstream and began shaping our daily routines in lasting ways. Many of the innovations that took hold during the 2010s continue to evolve today, influencing how we communicate with one another and also solve problems. As technology keeps advancing, the foundations laid during this period will likely be remembered as the start of a more connected and interactive digital age.
