With 2011 just around the corner, I know that we are all anticipating all the cool, nifty, new gadgets and gizmos that will be released…many of which will be shown or previewed at CES, no doubt.
So, not counting things you know will happen (for instance, we know Motorola is revealing their Android-OS tablet at CES,) what are your tech predictions for 2011? They can be anything from consumer devices like phones, laptops, tablets, to large-scale industry things, like a new method for data storage. But do try to keep it things that will actually get released or used this year, not just “X company announces yet another potential use for nanotubes that won’t actually get used.”
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The iPad 2 will be released, probably late spring. It will tout several features missing from the first iPad, like a camera (probably two, one rear, and one front-facing.) Still won’t have Flash support or an SD/Micro SD card slot.
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Android tablets will finally gain a significant market share. The Galaxy S Tablet paved the way, and the aforementioned Motorola tablet will help, as will tablets from Archos (has both a 7 and 10 inch, and priced cheap,) and the Notion Ink Adam is the real iPad ‘killer’…priced about the same, and with a better screen, Android open-ness, and all the things the iPad lacks (SD card, Flash, can be used very easily as portable file storage, no need for iTunes.)
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Windows Mobile 7 will fail spectacularly. They’ll limp along into 2012, but in the meanwhile, Android phones will continue to rise to compete with the iPhone. Blackberry continues to be the phone of choice in professional environments due to inertia, despite it’s shortcomings.
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Speaking of iPhone, the Verizon iPhone is finally announced. The Verizon iPad paved the way…it will probably go on sale around the same time as the iPad 2…probably both announced at Apple’s keynote.
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To get off the “mobile” trend…3D TVs will continue to flounder, because no one wants to pay that much for a technology a lot of they don’t like, and is only available for a relatively small amount of media.
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Speaking of 3D, the Nintendo 3DS (3D handheld gaming system, but does not require glasses, and allows for the 3D to be turned off,) will be a mild success, but the high price point (early estimates have it well over $200,) keeps it from being as successful as any of the previsions DS models…and speaking of, Nintendo announces it will stop production of the DSLite, leaving only the DSi and DSiXL in the regular DS line.
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Amazon finally releases a color Kindle, but it sells poorly because it will be a proprietary OS, and people will expect it to be more of a real tablet, like the Nook Color.