2012 Technology Predictions [+rep]

[Chippiewill]

We had one of these last year and the year before that and I'm copying it's format.

2012 is coming to an end, with what should be another huge year when it comes top changes and new thing in technology and gadgets. So, after the success of last years predictions and the things that happened..

What are your predictions for 2012, in terms of technology?

Will Bill Gates die? Will more prices soar? Will the Eurozone screw over technology? SOPA?

+Rep for playing.

[Oleh]

OLED will be introduced to the consumer market in the form of a pair of augmented reality glasses.
iPhone 5 will be the first phone to have 4g connectivity as standard

[FlyingJesus]

Return to floppy disks, COME ON

[iBlueBox]

Re-design of the majority of Apple products , Mac , iPhone , iPods.

and maybe Apple will launch a new product *TV hopes*

[xxMATTGxx]

Microsoft Flight will be released
Windows 8 will be released

I'm I allowed those? :P

Not sure about this one but it's more of a hopeful one: SSD prices decrease!

[triston220]

Quad Core tablets like the Asus Transformer Prime will cause a drop in price for lower end tablets, such as the iPad.

[cocaine]

will bill gates die? surely that's more of a human/population predicted than a solely technological one.. haha. i reckon bog-standard laptops will plummet in price due to the increase in technology. A new range of highly powered laptops will enter the market but be quite expensive for a while.

oh, and china will dominate us all. true story

[Chippiewill]

Microsoft Flight will be released
And I'll be forced to finally buy a yoke and some pedals. And it''l herald the return of the FS subforum.

--

I reckon that SSD prices will drop down below 50p per GB on the low-end (~300-400 mbps) and the high end will drop to 80p per GB.

also for tradition:


- We will discover everything that happens within the next week, praise CES.

- We will discover [almost] everything that'll happen within the next [few weeks], praise CES.

[xxMATTGxx]

And I'll be forced to finally buy a yoke and some pedals. And it''l herald the return of the FS subforum.

--

I reckon that SSD prices will drop down below 50p per GB on the low-end (~300-400 mbps) and the high end will drop to 80p per GB.

also for tradition:

Haha, hopefully it performs better than FSX and doesn't have the same problems with time round. But hardware has caught up now though but what they are saying about it, is promising. In regards of the FS Sub-forum, it was a great place! :(


"Happy Holidays from the Microsoft Flight team! As announced on our website, we will be showing off Flight in our booth at CES 2012 - come see us there!"

Dam them people, dam them. Oh well, I hope they accept me for beta access.

[Chippiewill]

Haha, hopefully it performs better than FSX and doesn't have the same problems with time round. But hardware has caught up now though but what they are saying about it, is promising. In regards of the FS Sub-forum, it was a great place! :(
You know, you didn't have to delete it, just restrict access to those who like it..

[xxMATTGxx]

You know, you didn't have to delete it, just restrict access to those who like it..

Could of done but no one gave us that idea and I didn't think of that! (Was it even me who did it? I don't even remember) The biggest mistake that happened to the section was merging it all together into one thread.

[Chippiewill]

Could of done but no one gave us that idea and I didn't think of that! (Was it even me who did it? I don't even remember) The biggest mistake that happened to the section was merging it all together into one thread.
I believe you were FM at the time? But yeah, one thread was dumb and made the entire thing unnavigable.

[FlyingJesus]

You know, you didn't have to delete it, just restrict access to those who like it..

Danny liked it

[Chippiewill]

Just had a look they're now taking applications for Flight Beta! Massive NDA all over it but I don't mind that to be honest.

[xxMATTGxx]

Just had a look they're now taking applications for Flight Beta! Massive NDA all over it but I don't mind that to be honest.

Think I read something about that, they are either changing it or letting Avsim bypass some of the NDA and write about it on their site. *finds the article*

This was posted on Avsim:


Microsoft invited a select group of community organizations to Redmond, Washington, for a preview and discussion regarding Microsoft's soon to be released FLIGHT simulator. The meeting and hand's on sessions took place this last Tuesday, December 13th. AVSIM was represented by Tom Allensworth, Publisher, and Robert Whitwell, Reviews Editor. This meeting was held under the auspices of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which all participants are covered by. In this meeting Microsoft shared confidential information and access to the FLIGHT game. Microsoft has indicated that some restrictions imposed by the NDA will be removed during the first week of January. To the extent that we are able and willing to do so, AVSIM will report on those aspects of FLIGHT allowed by those reduced restrictions. Please stay tuned. More to follow...

[Smurfed-]

A new apple product would be awesome. :)

[triston220]

A new apple product would be awesome. :)

That's obviously going to happen unless Apple goes bankrupt.

[Smurfed-]

That's obviously going to happen unless Apple goes bankrupt.

and lets face it, That's never going to happen :L

[Chippiewill]

That's obviously going to happen unless Apple goes bankrupt.
Or they could be stuck on ideas due to good ol' stevey..

Doubtful though because updating Apple hardware is a bit easy, better this.. better that. What I doubt they'll have is new innovative stuff or a completely new product. Mostly updates / refreshes.

[Recursion]

Or they could be stuck on ideas due to good ol' stevey..

Doubtful though because updating Apple hardware is a bit easy, better this.. better that. What I doubt they'll have is new innovative stuff or a completely new product. Mostly updates / refreshes.

Most of the design work came from Johnny Ives anyway

[Chippiewill]

Most of the design work came from Johnny Ives anyway
Never knew that.. still wouldn't expect entirely new products though.

Stupid apple-fan-boy-know-know it all..

[bFen]

Stephen Hawkin will Pass Away,
The Government turn against the people.
We run.
and Hide ._.

EDIT: Oh, and Holographic Skype Calls :P (That would be Awesome!)

[peteyt]

I wonder. We've had smart phones, tablets, what's next? I actually thought I'd Google Smart watch as I was looking at some james bond stuff earlier and noticed a few exist. I probably wouldn't wear one myself but would anyone else? Some people never go anywhere without their watch and sometimes it can be easy to loose a phone, so it would be hard to loose but maybe awkward to use.

[Mark]

Stephen Hawkin will Pass Away,
The Government turn against the people.
We run.
and Hide ._.

EDIT: Oh, and Holographic Skype Calls :P (That would be Awesome!)

Not for a few years yet I think!
I think VoIP will catch on a little bit more and everything will be more web/Internet based e.g. Tv, phone, streaming movies to TV

[Recursion]

Not for a few years yet I think!
I think VoIP will catch on a little bit more and everything will be more web/Internet based e.g. Tv, phone, streaming movies to TV

VoIP technically has caught on, so many businesses etc use it nowadays

[Mark]

VoIP technically has caught on, so many businesses etc use it nowadays

Yeah, I was talking about home owners :P

[xxMATTGxx]

Yeah, I was talking about home owners :P

I thought it has already with Skype? My parents are aware of it without me mentioning a thing to them.

[Mark]

I thought it has already with Skype? My parents are aware of it without me mentioning a thing to them.

Skype is through mobile phones and computers, not home landlines

[Recursion]

Skype is through mobile phones and computers, not home landlines

There's no use for VoIP in the home if you're using a PBX to convert it back to analogue anyway in that case. The only real reason to use VoIP at home would be if you were using a SIP provider over the internet, in which case, you'd still need an analogue phone line in a lot of homes to provide the ADSL backbone, which then nulls the point in VoIP in the home... you see where I'm going with this. :P

[iBlueBox]

Or they could be stuck on ideas due to good ol' stevey..

Doubtful though because updating Apple hardware is a bit easy, better this.. better that. What I doubt they'll have is new innovative stuff or a completely new product. Mostly updates / refreshes.


Steve, left a massive back-log planning out the future of Apple for like the next 10 years anyway on products ect.

[Jutnux]

GoDaddy will lose <10-15% of its customers.

[AgnesIO]

Always like having a go at this, so why not. I know some of these are pretty much definite..

Android Quad Core tablets will drop below £400
Apple will continue to dominate the portable music player market
Spotify will earn more than any other year, but lose huge amounts of users
Google+ will gradually fade out, Twitter to gain huge amounts of new members
A range of OLED TV's to be released at CES, specifically from LG
Ultrabooks to be sold by all major PCmanufacturers, Dell to fade out the Inspiron Z and replace with an ADAMO style ultrabook
Apple to be the only company to not reduce their tablet prices
Cloud Storage gains even more popularity
3D TV prices drop by >20% as companies aim to get them in to the market
PS Vita to drop below £200 by September
SOPA in America will become pretty big
Apple and Samsung patent war to continue through to 2013
Habbo Hotel and other online chat rooms to lose popularity even further

Very vague but you know, also I know some of those are crap ;)

[J0SH]

I predict there will be a new iPhone, Steve Jobs will rise from the dead and **** everything.

[HarrySX]

SSD will become mainstream with more and more consumers utilising it.
Facebook's growth will slow down.
A new era of web design perhaps.

[Chippiewill]

A note about the SSD thing, there are initial reports that in Q4 that SSD sales have risen substantially due to the floods furthermore SSDs are getting very close to the $/gb in low-end and have surpassed $1.5/gb in the high end. Which is roughly the pricing in 2004/5. That compared with just two or three years ago when SSDs were at $10/gb.

[Nli.]

Steve, left a massive back-log planning out the future of Apple for like the next 10 years anyway on products ect.

He left them with at least 4 years of products "in the pipeline".

My predictions are mostly Apple based;

The iPhone 5 will be released in June or July, with a completely re-design including a widescreen and obviously better internals including a higher megapixel front and rear camera.

Siri will be available on Apple TV's putting Microsoft Kinect's voice controller to shame (it's rubbish), along with the iPad 3 which I think will be released in March with Siri also and retina display, but can't see that happening for some reason.

I also think that RIM will cease to exist or be purchased by Samsung or soneone else. Excluding Microsoft, Google and Apple.

[Recursion]

He left them with at least 4 years of products "in the pipeline".

My predictions are mostly Apple based;

The iPhone 5 will be released in June or July, with a completely re-design including a widescreen and obviously better internals including a higher megapixel front and rear camera.

Siri will be available on Apple TV's putting Microsoft Kinect's voice controller to shame (it's rubbish), along with the iPad 3 which I think will be released in March with Siri also and retina display, but can't see that happening for some reason.

I also think that RIM will cease to exist or be purchased by Samsung or soneone else. Excluding Microsoft, Google and Apple.

RIM's far too large for any regulator to let a merger or something happen IMO, also iPhones are already widescreen?

[Nli.]

RIM's far too large for any regulator to let a merger or something happen IMO, also iPhones are already widescreen?

I see your point, also I mean the screen being edge to edge. An extra 0.5" on each side? (I think that's what it would be)

[efq]

I think a battery with a super longer life will come out. (So much more research been found recently in doing it).
New iPhone possibly.
Variety of different tablets at fairly low costs.
3D integration in a lot more things.
Physical CDs and DVDs decline I think. With Apple releasing OS X to download like that I think it'll move further this year.
I have a feeling this is a big year for social networking as well.
oh and 4G hopefully?

[Mark]

I think a battery with a super longer life will come out. (So much more research been found recently in doing it).
New iPhone possibly.
Variety of different tablets at fairly low costs.
3D integration in a lot more things.
Physical CDs and DVDs decline I think. With Apple releasing OS X to download like that I think it'll move further this year.
I have a feeling this is a big year for social networking as well.
oh and 4G hopefully?

I hope so too, but I doubt it'll be out this year.

[xxMATTGxx]

He left them with at least 4 years of products "in the pipeline".

My predictions are mostly Apple based;

The iPhone 5 will be released in June or July, with a completely re-design including a widescreen and obviously better internals including a higher megapixel front and rear camera.

Siri will be available on Apple TV's putting Microsoft Kinect's voice controller to shame (it's rubbish), along with the iPad 3 which I think will be released in March with Siri also and retina display, but can't see that happening for some reason.

I also think that RIM will cease to exist or be purchased by Samsung or soneone else. Excluding Microsoft, Google and Apple.

It may be rubbish but you can do so much with the Kinect, it's a great device. I'm not talking about what you do on your Xbox, I'm talking about the people who design it for other stuff. Such as the robots/space stuff and so on.

[AgnesIO]

I think a battery with a super longer life will come out. (So much more research been found recently in doing it).
New iPhone possibly.
Variety of different tablets at fairly low costs.
3D integration in a lot more things.
Physical CDs and DVDs decline I think. With Apple releasing OS X to download like that I think it'll move further this year.
I have a feeling this is a big year for social networking as well.
oh and 4G hopefully?

iPhone is definite? :P

[Eoin247]

I think that this year we'll finally see android phones and tablets catching up to apple. The CES shows some promising android products coming up. Also I think that finally companies realize that they cannot sell sub standard tablet devices for a similar price as the iPad.

[Recursion]

I think that this year we'll finally see android phones and tablets catching up to apple. The CES shows some promising android products coming up. Also I think that finally companies realize that they cannot sell sub standard tablet devices for a similar price as the iPad.

Android devices are already selling better than iOS devices, and the hardware was a lot better ~7 months ago with the launch of the Galaxy S2.

[Chippiewill]

I think that this year we'll finally see android phones and tablets catching up to apple. The CES shows some promising android products coming up. Also I think that finally companies realize that they cannot sell sub standard tablet devices for a similar price as the iPad.
There are many iPad quality devices debuting at $250 later this year.

[AgnesIO]

I think that this year we'll finally see android phones and tablets catching up to apple. The CES shows some promising android products coming up. Also I think that finally companies realize that they cannot sell sub standard tablet devices for a similar price as the iPad.

For the money paid I would put my neck out and say it is pretty lackluster.

I got a HP Touchpad in the firesale for £115, and as soon as ICS is released for it, I know which device I would rather have (taking cost in to account etc)

[Chippiewill]

I guess I'll include a list here of the round up to CES so people can see if they were correct or not (As far as non-suprises go)

TVs: (Big year for them)
- Consumer priced (As in £10k) OLED tvs at normal size (55") and manufacturing defects removed - Super blacks, super colour
- 4k TVs ready to be sold Q3 this year and now 8k TVs on display "Prototype" - Still no content platform, useful for passive 3D mostly
- 3D no longer the "BIG THING" but is just included by default
- A lot of new major TVs (As in one you'd have in your living room) announced at CES had App functionality and internet capability
- So many thin TVs, OLED TVs are nearing 4mm thick.

Phones:
- More of the same mostly
- However Windows Phone made a Buzz with Nokia's Lumia 900

Computers:
- Ultrabooks on the prowl, all manufacturers have one - Somewhere between tablets and laptops
- Tablets being very passive for now, compared to last year, likely waiting will Windows 8 - However the new Samsung Galaxy 8" and 10" variants and the Panasonic Touchpad made an impact
- Kinect for windows details - Smaller, lower range, no Xbox version compatibility

Best of:
- Tweet choir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCqJro837zA
- OLPC Tablet http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/olpc-tablet-finally-arrives/

There was also some random iBooks announcement that no one cares about but engadget somehow managed to dedicate four articles to.

Mostly there won't be much more *new* stuff throughout the year, however I'll try to bump and add some stuff to this thread where there are some curve balls.

[Oleh]

iPhone shock announcement in april & release in May.

The obvious Xbox & Playstation announcement at E3 & Release confirmed for Q4 2013.

Flexible portable devices announced to be in the prototyping stages.

Augmented reality contact lenses.

[Chippiewill]

The obvious Xbox & Playstation announcement at E3 & Release confirmed for Q4 2013.

Playstation announcement 2013, 2012 focus on getting the Vita sold. Xbox announcements at E3 this year however.

[Qzaki]

Re-design of the majority of Apple products , Mac , iPhone , iPods.

and maybe Apple will launch a new product *TV hopes*

Apple TV is predicted to come out in 2013 if I'm correct and most things will only have minor redesigns but i think the Mac Pro will have a whole new design (AppleGeek)

[peteyt]

I read that they are stopping selling PC's cheap - they want to do what Apple does and sell expensive products. However a Mac as much as they annoy me feels more complete - basically its an apple product that no other company make while is with PC's there's a lot of choice

[Recursion]

I read that they are stopping selling PC's cheap - they want to do what Apple does and sell expensive products. However a Mac as much as they annoy me feels more complete - basically its an apple product that no other company make while is with PC's there's a lot of choice
*who* is stopping selling PCs cheap?

[peteyt]

*who* is stopping selling PCs cheap?

I was reading it in a magazine at work - basically it stated that apparently a lot of large manufactures of PC's wanted to stop selling cheap PC's because they where selling loads but not making much money, their goal to sell top of the range expensive products like Apple so that if they sold a fair amount their profit would be decent.

[xxMATTGxx]

I was reading it in a magazine at work - basically it stated that apparently a lot of large manufactures of PC's wanted to stop selling cheap PC's because they where selling loads but not making much money, their goal to sell top of the range expensive products like Apple so that if they sold a fair amount their profit would be decent.

They won't stop selling cheap computers, they will probably have a low end and a high end and maybe even a range in the middle. Now some companies are not wanting to carry on with netbooks and rather go for ultrabooks instead.

[Chippiewill]

I was reading it in a magazine at work - basically it stated that apparently a lot of large manufactures of PC's wanted to stop selling cheap PC's because they where selling loads but not making much money, their goal to sell top of the range expensive products like Apple so that if they sold a fair amount their profit would be decent.
I know that Intel doesn't want to sell CPUs for cheap computers because they make a tiny margin but the manufacturers love it.