5 Technology Predictions for 2008

I know I'm a little bit late to the party with predictions this year, but better late than never.

January 9th, 2008 at 6:00am — Comments: (0) — By: Jonathan Danylko — Tags: Opinion

Predictions for this year will be difficult. So many things have changed in 2007, it'll be hard to pinpoint anything that will come true for 2008.

Well, let's give it a go.

Prediction #1: Mobile Devices will be added to a web developer's skillset as standard skills as mobile devices surge even more.

This follows my last prediction of mobile devices will become more of a necessity. While keeping their existing skill sets up to date, devigners will learn how to take an existing web site or application and morph it into a mobile web site or application with very little effort.

If you are reading this and don't have any idea of what it takes to convert an existing web site into a mobile site, you may be too late.

Prediction #2: A new technology will change the way we program.

It's been over 10 years since the Internet was introduced and it usually takes 10-15 years for a new technology to catch on. It may be time for a new technology to emerge and may be as ground-breaking as the Internet (I know...I'm stretching here).

Prediction #3: The Facebook fad will wear off, but other Level 3 social networks will continue to grow.

Facebook is growing by leaps and bounds, but I have a feeling we may have another mySpace.

What am I talking about?

Ever since Facebook took off, how much of mySpace have we heard of in the news? Exactly.

But since entrepreneurs/technologists have an idea of how such a beast works, more level 3 web sites will emerge and give Facebook/Yahoo! a run for it's money.

Prediction #4: Microblogging will become even bigger this year.

Twitter seems to be making a big splash in the web space lately. But it won't stop there.

I envision other sites providing the same type of blogging utilizing their mobile devices to create these micro-messages. Quick and small messages sent to a site to let people know what they are doing at this very moment.

Also, It actually wouldn't surprise me if Twitter is purchased this year.

Prediction #5: Asus products will become quite competitve in the laptop/portable space.

With the Asus EEE PC series, Dell may have competition if Asus follows up with some more extraordinary portables. I understand Dell primarily sells laptops, but they focus on price over innovation it seems. Asus fused a little bit of Palm ingenuity, added a trend of mobile computing and resulted in an Asus EEE PC with flash memory.

I quote the commercial, "Brilliant!"

Am I full of smoke, or am I even close to getting all predictions right? Tell me what you think.