My 2007 wishlist
Well I guess it's that time again. In just two more days the ball will drop and we will find another year gone. 2006 has been a good year. iPods continue to rule, multi-core processors are in nearly every system, RAM has never been cheaper, and hard drives have never been larger. My wishlist for 2007:
- Quad-core processors become the norm, and people
finally forget that they once had to stop surfing the web
while burning a CD
- Apple lowers its prices and delivers a crushing blow
to the likes of Dell and Microsoft by realizing they will
never gain significant market share while Dell is selling
the same exact hardware for half the price. OS X is nice,
but the average consumer just doesn't realize how bad
Windows is to compel them to switch
- NAND-based devices finally displace spinning platter
hard drives. You will be able to drop your laptop without
buying a new one.
- One of the home HD movie formats concedes victory so
the masses can finally buy a player without having to
worry about it being obsolete in 2008. I personally hope
Blu-Ray wins because of the higher capacity and the
1080p, but I really couldn't care less at this point--I
want one or the other!
Happy 2007 everyone. I hope you all get your wishes, too!
Looking back on 2005 - Looking forward to 2006
Wow, what a year it has been for the technology sector! In hindsight, many of my 2005 wishes were granted in some way or another. Apple announced last week its first line of Intel-based products that most people believe will allow Apple to remain competitive in the performance and price areas to wintel. Great news that they are also using very low-power dual-core chips. Firefox has indeed taken off, and is quickly gaining more market share. Version 1.5 appears to be better than ever. Intel has both journeyed into low-power chips and provided a viable alternative to Transmeta, which is still ailing as a business. All in all, a great year!
Wishlist for 2006:
- Apple releases the new Mac Mini with a dual-core x86
chip, while keeping the price point at $500. Dell
struggles to remain competitive since OS X is so clearly
superior to Windows, and the hardware is now comparable.
Consumers flock to Apple, Microsoft files for bankruptcy
protection. Symantec follows shortly after because the
need for antivirus protection dwindles to nothing
- Perl 6 is released at long last and takes the world
by storm. Programmers vaguely recall all the inferior
languages that once proliferated and long ago died
- Apple releases the new Nano with 40G flash memory
My 2005 wishlist
I thought I would take a few minutes and put together a wishlist for the 2005 year in technology…
- Transmeta ramps up production and OEMs worldwide
realize that consumers are tired of lugging around
10-pound laptops with 2-hour battery life. The
proliferation of small, light, and powerful tablets and
sub-notebooks ensues. 10-hour battery life is now
considered a minimum by consumers.
- Apple realizes that, while consumers like their
products, they cannot possibly justify paying double the
price of Dell systems. Apple aligns pricing with PC
makers and deals Microsoft a deadly blow by starting a
mass exodus of consumers to a truly stable OS based on
UNIX.
- Firefox proliferates to the point where most
consumers only vaguely recall that there was ever a
browser war. Web designers reap huge rewards, and can now
create pages without fear that a large, monopolistic
company will “embrace and extend” standards.
- Intel realizes that nobody thinks it’s okay to buy a
miniature nuclear reactor just to power the latest CPU
offering and decides to immediately dump the Prescott
core and begin an intense marketing campaign aimed at
illustrating the value of the new Efficeon core. Shortly
afterwards, Intel buys Transmeta and uses its ties with
OEMs to leverage total adoption of multi-core, low power
systems.
We can dream, can’t we? Happy New Year!