Now we have got over the NY hangover successfully, I thought I would take a look at 2010…and this should be a really interesting year as the spectre of the GFC lifts and confidence returns.
Rather than add to the cacophony surrounding the expected announcement by Apple of their own tablet solution (see my post on Oct 22nd), I thought I would highlight some even more interesting things I have heard, read or think could well be just around the corner in 2010:
- Stronger competitors start taking greater iphone share; Google’s own android phone (The Nexus One) and Blackberry and SONY Ericsson new product launches. Not sure we will see Nokia fight back with a truly decent product until 2011.
- Keep an eye on the British election and party/politician use of social media platforms to motivate voters (and what party manages this the best and who reaps any fall out)
- Greater integration and distribution of AR platforms
- Increased consumer/SME understanding and use of the ‘cloud’
- War of Netbooks (highly portable PC’s using Atom processors) vs. smartbooks (larger, more powerful mobile phones using ARM processors)
- Increased talk about 3D TV – will early adopters buy into this with the glasses. Focus should be on getting glassless solutions down to a reasonable cost and deliver a headache free experience!
- Increased video on demand options
- Manufacturers clamour to develop and market the primary in-home entertainment system. SONY Playstation and Xbox beefing up VOD and app store offering and their will be increased web integrated HD TV solutions
- I wonder if Apple itunes are looking to roll out a subscription based content streaming offering, following their purchase of lala.com in US
- Facebook passing half a billion members and further ramping up revenue driving initiatives/inventory. Myspace launching new initiatives to reverse member free fall
- Gear up of 4G mobile services in Europe and US, with downlink data speeds that can hit 100 megabits per second – about ten times quicker than the fastest 3G networks.
- News International roll out ‘Freemium’ model (free content with extra paid for sections) to solve pay for content challenge. A prediction, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
- Social network platforms are better and more seamlessly integrated into brand campaigns
- Google Wave rolled out to wider users and business community
- If Oracle’s acquisition of Sun is finally approved this month, it could lead to some very interesting B2B developments.
- Interesting to see what Skype does over the next year in the mobile to PC voice/data space, following ebay selling a majority stake to the original investors in 2009.
- Increased online brand presence of FMCG companies, to attempt to build stronger loyalty
And some possibly further fetched thoughts; Google buying Twitter and News Int only allow BING to serve it’s news content, blocking Google using it’s content. Not entirely convinced about this, but who knows. We have seen stranger things happen!
What do you think?
Digispeak 