A review of last year's tech predictions

There's more 2008 updates on they (and more photos have made their way onto Flickr. In the meantime, here's a review of how I did with my 2008 tech predictions.

Small computers

In many ways this prediction hasn't come to fruition as the new Mac Mini isn't scheduled to be launched until next week and the only other supplier, Acer, hasn't really pushed it's small systems. In fact, it's looking like small computers will arrive in the form of "all-in-ones" such as the iMac and Dell One and, more immediately, laptops which have started selling in larger numbers than desktops. The days of the massive, loud tower case are definitely numbered.
As a side I mentioned the Asus EEE PC - a cheap, small "nettop" laptop that I predicted would take the world by storm and this was a success - you can't move now for 9-10" low powered laptops in the £2-300 range. Their success has certainly annoyed a lot of people. Sony complained that it meant they would lose profits trying to sell a small laptop for over £1000. It also meant that people started to question the need to upgrade their computers when all they wanted to do was surf the net and run a word processor which panicked Microsoft who have had a keep extending the life of Windows XP.

E-Paper

This one is split across the world. In the US, E-paper is very popular thanks to the Amazon Kindle - an ebook that allows you to buy books from Amazon anywhere via a built-in shop. Unfortunately, E-book pricing still doesn't seem to reflect the lack of materials compared to a paper book. Sony released a new Reader that was better than the old 505, which may explain why the Reader was finally launched in the UK. Of course, the model we got was last year's 505 model (no doubt collected up from the rest of the world) and at £200 it's not exactly cheap. Still, it's apparently selling well through Waterstones. Next year will see the release of the Plastic Logic Reader and no doubt the gradual reduction in price to where they might actually be worth it.

Personal GPS

A hit. As expected, the iPhone3G featured built in GPS. Out of the box, you've got Google Maps to use, but thanks to Apple's innovative App Store a large number of "location-based services" have sprung up allowing you to find just about anything where ever you are: ATMs, restaurants, nearby friends, public toilets... This has resulted in every other smartphone from HTC, Nokia, RIM etc coming with GPS and most mid-range Nokia phones. In the next year this will filter down to the low end phones from Nokia, Samsung, Lg and SonyEricsson. But to be honest, the iPhone is the one everyone wants.

Splashpower

This one is a massive failure. After years of failing to get any manufacturers on board, Splashpower went under in April. However, their patents have been bought up, so we may yet see products based on wireless charging.

Smartcards

Another slow-burner. These are being rolled out across transport networks throughout the country. With the credit-crisis, the banks haven't kept up the momentum in rolling out contactless payments outside of the City of London. Nevermind.

As a side, it seems most of my 2007 predictions have come to fruition in 2008. Digital photo frames have hit the mainstream, even if most of them use cheap screens. The next generation using OLEDs are now available (for a price). HSDPA is now built into almost every phone released and personal GPS is taking off and the Wii is running away from the XBox360 and PS3 in terms of sales.

I'm still thinking about my predictions for the year 2009, so until then Happy New Year!