Back to the Future–Predictions for 2012 in Tech

by Auri Rahimzadeh

A couple more days and it’ll be 2012. What a year! Let’s take a look at some new tech happenings from this year that got us pretty excited, and bummed, too:

• Microsoft’s overall software reputation appears to be a lot better this year, with huge adoptions numbers for Windows 7… congrats on a great product, guys!
• Windows Phone Mango (hey-oh! they shipped a great product, but it needs some company love!)
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich (and the laughs that it was [legitimately] only on one phone!)
• Plasma finally went on clearance, and good riddance (Sasha’s gonna kill for me this one)
• iPads as laptop replacements (only to be carried around with keyboard cases)
• AMD Fusion APUs (finally, low power processors that don’t suck)
• *Still* no good office applications for Android
• Large HDTVs are finally affordable *and* green
• R.I.P. Steve Jobs – we will miss you

And here’s what will probably be declared dead in 2012, or so I hope:

• Standalone portable game systems – who needs ‘em now that even media players run Android, have dual core processors, and play games from the Market?
• Blu-ray 3D
• Non-glasses-less 3D in the home
• Non-LED backlit displays
• Windows XP
• IE 6, finally (although they’ll probably stick with IE8 and up)
• Windows CE-based handhelds
• ThunderBolt®/LightSpeed® ports on average consumer computers, with USB 3.0 being used instead
• Google+ – does anybody use it?
• Any iPod with a capacity under 32 GB

Things I’m looking forward to, or hoping are created this year:

• Our 10th year in business – YES!
• Windows 8, especially how it will run on ARM
• Better Windows Phone advertising by Microsoft
• Lots of interesting new things out of MS, now that their DOJ shackles are off
• Windows Live Mesh integration in Windows 8, and a backup plan for using Live Mesh to auto-backup important files to the cloud, for free
• CES 2012 (Vegas)
• CEATEC 2012 (Japan)
• Sprint’s Wi-Max based 4G, and a class action lawsuit for all those who paid the $10/month surcharge for a service Sprint didn’t offer in their area (ahem)
• An Android interface building kit from Google that doesn’t’ stink, and helps you create great looking apps
• A web service connectivity API for Android that doesn’t stink, either
• A free utility to convert Flash to Android / iOS / Windows Phone apps, or at least get you a good way there
• A free utility to convert Silverlight or Flash to HTML 5-based apps (I think Adobe’s working on this already, and Microsoft might beat them to it)
• XCode for Windows (and I wonder if it won’t work on Windows8 when that’s released)
• Superbowl 2012 in Indianapolis! w00t!

If I’m wrong about any of this, we may not be around to complain, since the world is apparently going to end before Christmas next year. Get your complaints in now!

My friend Andy Marken also has a great write-up about 2011 and 2012, which you can read here…