6. Lots of cloud hype, little cloud action
Okay, this sounds like the story of 2011 as well, but we’re predicting that the trend will continue in 2012. There’ll be lots of talk about us keeping all our data and media on internet cloud servers, accessible from anywhere, and that any day now most of our apps will be web based using HTML5 rather than locally installed.
But until we hit the era of unlimited super-high speed broadband (see prediction 4), that’s not going to happen.
Products like Google’s Cloud Music and Apple’s iCloud are good ideas, as are many web apps, but if you don’t have unlimited downloads on both wireless and fixed lines, they’re just not going to take off.
7. Cybercrime goes mobile
Okay, this one’s a bit of a downer, but by this time next year we may have to have security suites installed on our phones and tablets as well as our PCs.
The open and ubiquitous Android platform (see point 2) provides motivated cybercriminals with plenty of opportunity, and as a result an increasing number of cyber attacks are being targeted at mobiles.
With smartphone sales continuing to skyrocket, this is only going to get worse.
8. Apple can’t recapture that Steve Jobs zazz
Apple will release a new iPhone, a new iPad and some new PCs in 2012. That’s a given.
And they’re probably exactly the same products that would have been released had Steve Jobs still been at the helm.
Yet the hype surrounding them will be far more muted than before as the media focuses not on the products but on Apple itself, fixating on whether Apple has lost its edge now that Jobs is gone.