Here we go, I’ve reached into my Crystal Ball and come up with the following:
- SharePoint, will continue dominance through the year, more 2007 upgrades to 2010. No new versions this year, but we may get a whisper of the next version of SharePoint by the year’s end. SharePoint will continue as a dominating enterprise Content Management System until well into the 2020′s at their current pace
- Tablets will continue to flourish, but Ipad will get some heavy competition, buy stock in Android Tablet manufacturers
- Mobile I’m breaking down as follows
- Beginning of the end for Iphone, we’ll see declining market share as Apple’s overly oppressive developer policies and aggressive marketing by Microsoft take it’s toll, it’ll be some time before the Iphone is gone, but I give it 4-5 years
- Adios RIM, sorry nothing there to be enthusiastic about
- On a similar vein to my first mobile bullet, Microsoft will continue to push Windows Phone and it’ll become a contender, expect it into the #3 slot by the end of year. It has a long way to go before #2 or #1 though
- …So that means Android will dethrone Apple, all hail king Droid
- Carrier Wise, Sprint being the last one left with an unlimited plan will start seeing migrations now that you can get an Iphone with them. Taking on the Iphone however was a risky gamble and I’m not sure if they can sell enough phones to make it worth it. But it’ll get people’s attention towards Sprint, who may wind up buying a Droid on the Sprint network anyways. This will be at the expense of the other 3 big carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon) in equal shares. How much market share this will give Sprint, not sure but Sprint will gain market share at the other carriers expense
- Desktops and laptops will decline in sales in the wake of tablets and consistently smarter phones, but they are not done yet. After all how else are you going to build a mobile app?
- Cloud Computing will refine itself and become a meaningful term, right now what defines “cloud computing” is kinda hazy. Virtual Servers procured on demand….so? Virtual/Cloud computing will continue to take over however. It’s just a lot more efficient that way.
- Something will have to give in the E-Book world, DRM is unsustainable as the online music industry has taught us. I just can’t see buying a kindle until I know I can pass my books on to my kids and grand kids or sell them in a secondary market without worry.
- Facebook continues to dominate the world of social computing, sorry Google+ is no competitor and the only remote competitor I see is LinkedIn.
- Windows continues to dominate the Desktop OS World with the arrival of Windows 8, Windows Server will creep into the Server world as well as Admins get increased faith in its reliability and secure capabilities. Linux will never go anywhere though it’s dominance at the fringes (lower end cheaper environments and higher end, rugged environments) will never disappear.
