Top 25 Tech Predictions for 2010

The global economy will limp into the first calendar quarter of next year, with IT playing an important role in the recovery, which will be modest in 2010. 2010 will be a year of modest recovery for the IT and telecommunications industries. But the recovery will not mean a return to the pre-recession status quo.

1. Solid-state disks will become more mainstream in 2010.

This will apply particularly to laptops, but also boot disks in high-end PCs. Prices of SSDs will fall thanks to better manufacturing efficiency and as prices fall, capacity will increase

2. Intel's Core i3 processors will become the desktop processor of choice for most PCs.

Thanks to their twin cores that support HyperThreading, they are effectively quad-core chips.

3. Cloud computing: Online apps also look like they’re going to become popular in 2010.

Google Docs is a great example, as the benefits for consumers are immense: no need to invest in Microsoft Office, you can access your documents and calendar from any internet-connected device, plus collaborate in real-time with others on the same documents.

4. 2010 looks set to be an exciting year for new input technologies in games.

Wii sales may be falling, but Microsoft and Sony will launch their own next-generation control devices

5. Browser vendors finally start to take XSS seriously

I was very encouraged when Microsoft released IE 8 this year and it included XSS protection. For all of the heat that Microsoft takes for security vulnerabilities, they continue to be a leader when it comes to adding innovative security features and this was another example. I'm confident that other browser vendors have taken notice and will fall in line.

6. 2010 will be the year of HD for the masses.

HD TVs in 2010 will quickly switch to LED backlights instead of traditional fluorescent lamps. This will reduce power consumption and bring even better contrast, since it's easy to switch LEDs on or off in the portions of the image that are light or dark.

7. Google Mobile Mania

Google will release its own Android phone in an increasingly competitive market. By the end of 2010, more enterprises will embrace iPhone use, although RIM's BlackBerry will still be the platform of choice for companies that have to be more concerned about security issues.

8. Facebook growth slows and becomes mainstream.

I suspect the growth of Facebook will slow but that members will enjoy more games and other leisure based functionality.

9. Windows 7 Sales Will Roar.

By the end of 2010, more than 177 million copies of Windows 7 will be installed worldwide, with 60 million of those in the U.S. Windows 7 shipments will reach 272 million in 2013

10. Smartphones will continue to surge.

With Android devices challenging the supremacy of the iPhone the smartphone arena will get very interesting and very hot. There is also a chance Symbian will crash and burn because it promised so much and delivered so little that users will be tempted to look elsewhere.

11. Microsoft Will Keep Attacking Apple.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cited recent independent survey data that shows perceptions of value among 18- to 24-year-olds shifting steadily away from Apple and toward Microsoft.

12. Attackers turn to the cloud.

The cloud offers unprecedented storage and processing power at an attractive price. Think that's only attractive to enterprises? Think again.

13. Oracle finally gets Sun and other M&A news.

The Oracle-Sun Microsystems deal will close. Mindful of not incurring excessive wrath from the open-source community, Oracle will not kill off MySQL. Instead, it will be inserted into a stack along with Oracle's Unbreakable Linux, pitted against Microsoft SQL Server.

14. Web based worms go prime time.

2010 will see continued growth in crime and the exploitation of people search through social media technologies

15. Apple is forced to climb the security learning curve

Apple has for some time been considered to have a safer operating system in OS X as it is less often targeted by attackers. While that may be true, it is less secure overall and Apple's increasing market share will force them to finally invest in security due to increasing attacks targeted at Apple devices.

16. Google gets taken down a notch...

Google will finally stretch itself too far beyond its search engine roots, irritating content providers, regulatory agencies and users enough that Bing, even though it's also run by a monolith for whom love is not lost in many quarters, will keep making search inroads just because people want another option.

17. Apple bites into e-readers.

AT&T's contractual gridlock on the iPhone will be broken, with Verizon entering that lucrative market as Apple eschews future U.S. exclusivity deals, ahead of regulators imposing rules forbidding that sort of mobile telecommunications contract.

18. Social networking grows up

This assessment from Foote Partners rings true for us: "Social media may have started out as a fad but it is quickly winning serious corporate converts. The search will intensify in 2010 for IT specialists who can engage audiences in their company's messages, products and services."

19. Game Console Video Kills the PC Star, at Least for Internet Video.

Internet video primarily has been consumed directly on the PC as streaming bite-sized clips. Only early adopters viewed streamed or stored Internet video on their TV. The amount of Internet video viewed on TV doubles in 2010, and the gaming console serves as the primary gateway, accounting for almost half of usage.

20. Both compact and digital SLR cameras will become easier to use.

Manufacturers have already hit useful resolution limits and will stop relying on high megapixel figures for their marketing campaigns

21. Microsoft Rivals Will Whine About Silverlight.

With the recently released Silverlight 4, testers have noticed that Microsoft has already diverged from its stated goal of making Silverlight a cross-platform technology.

22. More mobile phones will have social aggregation software

that pulls in data from multiple sites – contacts, calendars, social networking – and merges it into a unified interface, like a 'universal inbox'.

23. Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform, goes into production

on Jan. 1 and debuts as a paid service on Feb. 1. Azure is a big bet on Microsoft's part that necessitated the construction of massive data centers, and the software giant will need to get developers onto the platform quickly to justify that investment.

24. Smart Phones on the Rise in Emerging Economies.

India and China remain the twin engines of growth for the overall mobile segment. Two countries to collectively chalk up over 295 million units in handset shipments in 2010. The key driver of smartphones in the emerging markets is the increasing sophistication of mobile users.

25. The Card Systems data breach will look like child's play

This is by far the easiest prediction to make. After all, records were made to be broken. As memory becomes cheaper and power becomes more expensive, enterprises are looking to consolidate data storage and continue to build massive data centers and develop ever larger data stores thanks to cloud computing. The volume of data that can be stolen when adequate security controls are not implemented is truly staggering