BLOG@CACM
Architecture and Hardware

What Will 2010 Bring?

Posted
Geeky Ventures Founder Greg Linden

What changes will we see in 2010 in computing?

Will phones make the transition to becoming computers, no longer odd, specialized devices built by the old Ma Bells, but now general computing devices powered by Apple, Microsoft, and Google?

Will the tablet–the repeatedly tried but repeatedly failed touch-sensitive, lightweight, thin computer built mainly for reading, browsing, and writing–finally succeed in 2010?

Will 2010 bring the end of the netbook, squeezed out by more powerful mobile devices from below and lighter tablets and laptops from above?

Will the thin client–moving all computation and storage off the local device to a centralized computer, the dumb terminals and mainframes of the past, reborn in the 21st century world of glitzy screens and cluster computing–finally succeed in 2010?

Is 2010 the year enterprise moves to the cloud, with businesses and organizations dropping their concerns about data security beside the costs of managing their servers and letting their private e-mail, calendars, and documents live far beyond their walls?

Is 2010 the year of local, where we can now expect mobile devices to know their location, and social software and search become personalized not just to your location, but to the history of where you have been and where you likely are going? 

Will 2010 be the year that augmented reality goes from being a toy to being a mainstream application, all driven by powerful, location-aware mobile devices?

Will 2010 be the year of personalized advertising, where ads no longer are matched to content, but to people?  Will it become expected that advertising is relevant and useful to you?  Will this make advertising less annoying?  Or will it make it more intrusive and abusive?

Will streaming TV hit the mainstream in 2010, with many people getting their TV not on a rigid schedule, but on-demand over a data network?  How will this change what people watch, how they find shows to watch, what devices they use for entertainment and watching TV, and how producers measure what shows people like?  How will everyone watching a different show at different times change advertising on TV?

What do you think 2010 will bring?

Join the Discussion (0)

Become a Member or Sign In to Post a Comment

The Latest from CACM

Shape the Future of Computing

ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.

Get Involved

Communications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.

By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.

Learn More