The Year 2011 saw Apple bloom despite the loss of its one-of-a-kind seed, seemingly finding the equilibrium point between art and functionality in its line of i-Products, from the iPhone to the iPad. The latter seized a stranglehold on the Tablet market, with other companies scrambling to get their piece of the i-Pie (okay; thatâs enough) - from Amazonâs new Kindle Fire, to the Android and Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Clearly, Tablets have the staying power of laptops, and we can look forward to continued improvements in successive generations.
If we could truly predict what would happen in 2012 with the big players, then weâd probably work for one of them; so instead, weâll take a shot at tongue-in-cheek predictions of not necessarily what will happen in 2012, but what should happen. Especially since there are no consequences whatsoever for being wrong. Enjoy!
1. Amazonâs Kindle will dip below $50 (which is just $10 more than the current price of a Kindle leather cover). With Amazonâs entry into the Tablet Wars with the Kindle Fire, marketing will have to move away from a âmereâ reader, considering that the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Apple IPad, and Asus Transformer could probably beam Scotty Up with just a few more tweaks.
2. First; for the âwill happenâ: social media will continue to grow and insert itself into even more aspects of daily life. With the growing rise in computer Tablet functionality and ubiquity, it only makes sense that Social Media giants will start partnering with or perhaps making their own! Look for the Tumblr Tab near the end of the year 2012, with the Facebook Fone (oops; got carried away â Phone) hot on her heels. Youâll be able to bring up your list of friends and press âLikeâ to dial, and âDislikeâ to hang up. Yet another platform will Stumble Upon their own brand, although theyâre more likely to sign a deal to be included as a primary app on a pre-existing Tablet.
3. In the concluding months of 2011, Google announced that it had finally re-upped with Mozilla Firefox, becoming the primary search engine on the burgeoning browser, satiating many users tired of the fickle Compatibility Toolbar option. A new player should take note of this and introduce a social media-oriented browser, incorporating Twitter, Facebook, Digg etc as primary features, instead of as âmerelyâ apps/buttons. It should have a real-time scrollbar of your Facebook Friendsâ recent Likes with one-click access to the relevant stories. This will just be a natural extension of Meebo bars and floating social media widgets.
4. On a more serious note, the ubiquity of social media should play a sizable role in helping to get the economy slowly back on track. Business costs, such as travel budgets, human resources devoted to walk-ins, and any number of other formerly costly expenditures, can be reduced by tapping into the data-stream. LinkedIn profiles, crossed with Facebook information and interaction can help businesses laser down select interview requests with pinpoint accuracy, and set up conferences with workers far from the office. Depending on productivity level-results, company overhead using in-office workers may be drastically reduced by having certain employees work from home.
5. Solar technology innovation will riseâ¦well â like the sun. Better materials, more government energy-incentives, lower cost, and greater awareness of the benefits of going green will start to pervade the consciousness of the average consumer. This should start making its presence felt in the latter months of 2012; and the good thing is â there will be no need to turn back. The first solar-powered laptop will run out of energy shortly after it boots-up, but will represent a milestone nonetheless.
6. With Facebookâs increasing share of search, and the Bing-Yahoo collaboration encroaching ever-so-slightly onto Googleâs territory, the tech giant should compartmentalize and a section of its purview and develop a childrenâs search engine - exclusively childrenâs search engine. This will be outside the range of Facebookâs 13-and-over sign-up policies, and corral an attractive stream of education, toys and all other applicable venues to consolidate their trades in one place, over other available options. Why stop at giving people what they want, when you can tell them what they want, as well. Or better yet, let their children tell them what they want.
7. Lastly; this one isnât really a âshouldâ, but a definite: increase in mobile phone capabilities in virtually every aspect. App stores will grow in the number of available options; phone hardware and software will become bigger, better and larger in number. Long-gone are the days of 3MP resolution; phone video will look better than your high-end TV, so that the viral dancing turtle YouTube video will look as if heâs right beside you.
