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Developer Report: IoT Is 'Most Realistic New Tech'

Of all the new game-changing, cutting-edge technologies on developers' radar for 2019, the Internet of Things (IoT) holds the most promise of real-world adoption in the near future, according to a new report from HackerRank.

The firm is a technical recruiting specialist, championing the measurement of developer skills as opposed to degrees or credentials to match the best developers with enterprises seeking scarce talent. It annually publishes a developer skills study.

In the new 2019 HackerRank Developer Skills Report, the company explored new tech on the horizon, asking devs to grade the offerings as: overhyped, unrealistic, unsure, somewhat realistic and very realistic.

The Real World Application of Technologies by 2020
[Click on image for larger view.] The Real World Application of Technologies by 2020 (source: HackerRank)

"Internet of Things (53 percent), just above Deep Learning (50 percent), is predicted to be the most adopted new technology in the next two years," the report said. "The increasing connectivity of homes, cars and even cities is evidence of this technology having the best chance of real-world application by 2020."

The new study somewhat serves as a contrarian counterpoint to an earlier study by Dresner Advisory Services LLC, based in Nashua, N.H., that found "IoT Survey Finds Adoption Slower Than Hype Might Indicate."

"We expect that overall adoption will grow slowly until more widely applicable use cases and services for IoT become apparent," said Jim Ericson, vice president and research director at Dresner, in a press release for the report published last October.

HackerRanks's data led it to a different viewpoint: " As IoT and Deep Learning continue gaining momentum, it’s clear that picking up the skills needed to work on these technologies will be valuable for developers," it said in the new report, just published today (Jan. 29).

Other prominent new technologies didn't fare so well.

"On the other end of the spectrum, with a fluctuating cryptocurrency market but also the support of many of the biggest companies in the world, blockchain is an unpredictable technology," the report said. "[About] 20 percent of developers said the real-world application of blockchain in the next two years is overhyped."

Augmented reality and quantum computing also received relatively high marks for being "overhyped," while cloud ML and computer vision followed IoT and deep learning in the "very realistic" characterization.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.

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