Your forecasts of the hot IT technologies of 2009

[frankfriend]

What do you expect to see as the 'hot' technologies in computing for 2009?

I'm guessing that hardware will see a great deal more emphasis on smaller pc's, and handheld / pocket sized computers. The Asus range will increase, and perhaps lower priced machines, with even more power will appear.

I also guess that some real steps will come from Apple. Of course in the past few years they have made the running in so many areas - but I guess they will move further in 2009 / 2010.

Wireless connectivity will increase more and more, as the main enabler of further changes in connections, knowledge finding, and demands for better applications.

Better search systems, maybe focussing on 'find' systems will begin to emerge. What I mean by this is search systems that try to find better focussed answers instead of quite imprecise directories of keyword related lists of articles.

Hosting will grow [good job Corey]. Hosting companies may offer richer services [more for your buck] and may add more applications.

Software - hopefully main developments will include operating systems that work. But this may be achieved by the beginning of new developments with browsers and other software which takes over parts of the operating systems functionality.

What do you think, and what do you want to see?

 

[Wolfhaze]

My "forecast" of the next year, eh?

1.) I expect that the OS battles will start anew towards the end of '09, with a focus on optimizations for Apple's Leopard OS and anticipation of Windows 7. Beware of mudslinging from both sides.

2.) Except to see at least one or two new games designed to run on only high-end machines (in the fashion of Crysis), but you should just resist the desire to go out and spend the few thousand dollars to play it. The reasons being, I think there's going to be a lot of interest pretty soon in 64-bit and multicore optimization and some retarded developer is going to try and find a way to push the capabilities of DDR3 ram.

They'll probably suck anyway. We're in an age where graphics quality trumps content quality.

3.) Surface technology will get a major boost. Not exactly energy-efficient, but it's high-tech and gives one the feeling of being in a corny sci-fi flick.

4.) Someone's going to find a more efficient way of harvesting solar power than using silicon panels. Or at least, I wish they would.

5.) Recession of the American economy might limit interest in the development of uber-machines. You know, like HP's Blackbird and Alienware.

6.) Sims 3 will be out, and so will I.

 

[frankfriend]

Hi Wolfhaze,

I think you are right about the OS wars restarting, Do you think linux will emerge with a bigger part to play?

Games - surely you have to have both graphics and content quality - in the long run the 'story' is the key to most games [and film / video]

Shock horror - but PS3 and Wii are going to get greater and greater prominence I feel.

What if Apple launched a games machine???

 

[Smith6612]

Hi Wolfhaze,

I think you are right about the OS wars restarting, Do you think linux will emerge with a bigger part to play?

Games - surely you have to have both graphics and content quality - in the long run the 'story' is the key to most games [and film / video]

Shock horror - but PS3 and Wii are going to get greater and greater prominence I feel.

What if Apple launched a games machine???

Apple ages ago did launch a gaming console. I don't recall what it was called but it was similar to an NES. But that would be cool to see Apple do that.

 

[mattura]

Everyone will get an HD TV, but they will grow in resolution, size and clarity over the coming year.
Blue Ray prices will come down and become as common as DVDs
PCs and laptops will become connectible to any HD TVs and Digital Rights Management will simmer down in the way DVD regions did (ie nobody will bother any more).
In many countries, free wifi access will be commonplace in public areas (this is already happening in UK and I suspect the US)
People will move away from cold HD storage to online storage solutions, to access their data/files/programs anywhere via the internet.

Those are my predictions))

 

[frankfriend]

Hi Mattura,
Do you think people will give up local HD storage for online storage - or add online storage to their exisiting and future local storage. Local drives are getting so so cheap, with 1tb heading for $75 soon. If you want to store videos & films [large files] doing it l;ocally may be better? [cheaper, faster, more secure].

I agree so much with your other predictions.

 

[Livewire]

Apple ages ago did launch a gaming console. I don't recall what it was called but it was similar to an NES. But that would be cool to see Apple do that.

This?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandai_Pippin

I'm not sure that's it though but it sure sounds similar to the one I'm remembering.
Wrong time-frame is the problem; Apples was 10 years newer.


Still, other than a bunch of iPhone results on Google, that seems to be their console.

 

[Wolfhaze]

Hi Wolfhaze,

I think you are right about the OS wars restarting, Do you think linux will emerge with a bigger part to play?

Games - surely you have to have both graphics and content quality - in the long run the 'story' is the key to most games [and film / video]

Shock horror - but PS3 and Wii are going to get greater and greater prominence I feel.

What if Apple launched a games machine???

I think Linux will continue to do what it's been doing. The leader in that boat seems to be Ubuntu, and I don't know if its going to become "awesome" within the next year (and yes, I use it -- it is quite newbie-friendly).

I think Apple launching a game machine would be.... irritating. But that's a personal opinion. I don't think it would be able to shoulder Sony or Microsoft out of the way and get much attention anyway; Apple has not been a good platform for games.

 

[mattura]

True frankfriend, but I believe the accessibility will lure people to store large amounts 'somewhere online', that they can get to using a password. There are already free services that offer this. You can store several gb in google accounts for example. The problem that still hasn't been solved is the bandwidth, but I think steps are being made in this direction and this year should improve a lot.

 

[ichwar]

I think that Linux is going to grow in popularity, as the new apple OS has been extremely dissapointing to a lot of mac fans I know, and Windows Vista totally sucks. Once Windows 7 comes out and everyone sees that that's not much better, I think there will be a move towards linux. It needs to be marketed better though. Alot of people I talk to still asociate linux with a command line os, a lot of people still tell me that you cant do anything on linux unless you know all the terminal unix language. All this to say: Linux would be more popular, I think, If more people knew what it really is like!

 

[tetrahedron]

I respectfully disagree with ichwar. My hands-on testing of the new Windows 7 beta has convinced me that Microsoft just might make a huge comeback for Q4 2009. Although it won't make an immediate impact in the corporate market (due to its naturally slow adoption rate), I think it will be welcomed by your average PC buyer. Keep a look out for the public Win7 beta coming this friday and decide for yourself!

 

[frankfriend]

Hey, that info about the Apple Bandai Pippin was really interesting - never heard of it before. More a Lemon than and Apple?

Surely the Nintendo PS3 is the leading games console and entertainment system, especially with its online interactivity and blueray. The Sony wii is complementary - you need both systems because of the wii's physical interactivity - wii fit, bowling, boxing, etc.

I am one of the many millions who do not yet appreciate Linux - so Ichwar may well be right - Tetrahedron will be proved right about Microsoft IF Windows 7 actually works. I do use Vista Ultimate on a reasonably powerful laptop, and have not had massive problems with it [except on installation] but it is quite slow sometimes, and the last SP release seems to have` come with free concrete boots.

I do think that Browser developments and extensions will be important.

There are increasingly overlaps between operating systems, application packages, utilities, and browsers.

The software houses need to rethink their focus, and fix it on what USERS [CUSTOMERS] want to do with their systems, and less on marketing positioning and eliminating competitorts. Success will co0me from having great products, not daft manoeuvres. Unless you can create a monopoly... but monopolies are always broken - just like empires.

 

[ichwar]

I respectfully disagree with ichwar. My hands-on testing of the new Windows 7 beta has convinced me that Microsoft just might make a huge comeback for Q4 2009. Although it won't make an immediate impact in the corporate market (due to its naturally slow adoption rate), I think it will be welcomed by your average PC buyer. Keep a look out for the public Win7 beta coming this friday and decide for yourself!

I would love it if Windows 7 makes a comback. But seeing how win2k which was good went to xp which was worse and then to vista which runs horribly, I'm not expecting too much from windows 7. Things could change though.

 

[frankfriend]

Any one been to CES 2009? or Macworld?
We should see the trends and forecasts which will really appear in 2009 appearing there.

 

[frankfriend]

The 'Netbook' trend is getting much stronger - thre real strength these have is purely portability. They are still just too big to rival PDAs - but what happened to PDA's come to that?
Portability is going to be a big key, and lots of devices will again converge. Webcams, cameras, movie cams, and phones obviously. Skype & Blackberry type solutions will, over time, hit mobiles. But so much mobile trafffic is from people who do not use computerws [or do not know that they use them inside other devices].

 

[frankfriend]

Easy to use and understand backup applications, and easy processes for keeping multiple computers [e.g. a desktop & a portable] in line, both with a decent easy to use 'logging' system would be really useful. Just think how this would help with developing our websites. Just like developing business programs and systems.

 

[Smith6612]

I'm taking a guess that a new service that is coming out sometine during the winter of 2009, called Onlive will become a hot technology. Found out about it today.

 

[frankfriend]

Thanks Smith662,
I'll look in to it right away