IT Predictions 2009
January 12, 20091) Microsoft starts scaling down and completely vacates at least one of its auxiliary business lines (MSN, Windows Mobile, XBox, search/portal).
2) Apple makes a serious push for enterprise customers, exemplified by features in Snow Leopard, which will sport of much more toned down GUI (ex no more red, yellow and green buttons on windows).
3) Sun Microsystems gets a stay of execution, as its gambles in storage, MySQL and virtualization pay dividends and return the company to marginal profitability.
4) The iPhone/iPod touch displace the Nintendo DS as the #1 mobile gaming device after hardware and software updates reinforce the device’s gaming functionality and attract more game development shops.
5) BluRay continues to stagnate as the recession hits the format hard. Digital movie downloads also become more attractive. Upscaling DVD players get improve marketing as cheap alternatives to BluRay.
6) Open source databases like MySQL and Postgresql benefit tremendously from the recession, as Oracle and other large database vendors finally lose traction.
7) At least one mobile operating system provider (WindowsMobile, OpenMoko, Android, Symbian) throws in the towel.
8) Apple scales back its iPod models and introduces at least one more lower-end iPhone line (ex “iPhone Nano”) in order to gain subscribers who can’t afford the full iPhone data plan and want to carry one device instead of two. The new phones will be available in CDMA and GSM, so Apple can do an end-run around AT&T for the non-smartphone business.
9) At least one major PC OEM, frustrated with Microsoft’s recent failures with Vista and the difficulty in extending Windows XP’s life, puts serious resources behind making Linux more user friendly in order to sell a line of Linux desktops and laptops. This could be a joint effort among Dell, HP, and several notebook vendors who realized there’s no way for them to install Mac OS X on their computers.
10) Cloud computing doesn’t take off, due mostly to the limits of internet connectivity and bandwidth and somewhat to consumers’ distrust of cloud computing vendors with their data.
