Technology in 2008
I have been keeping an uber trends list for 2008 and thought I’d highlight the Economist as well, as, a few other forecasts. In today’s edition of the Economist, they make three fearless predictions:
- Surfing will slow
- Surfing will detach
- Surfing – and everything else computer related – will open
Looks like they spent a lot of time analyzing Internet behavior but certainly displeased Marc Andreesson. In a nutshell, what they mean by #1 is that because of all of the increased traffic and bandwidth intensive behavior (trading movies, uploading CGC, etc), web surfing is going to be increasingly slower over time. It’ll get fixed, but we’ve got a long road ahead of us before it gets much faster.
In #2, the Economist predicts that web surfers will utilize the 700mhz frequency that Google is bidding on. If this happens, then DSL and Cable Internet may go the way of the dinosaur. Hence the release of Android.
In #3, everything becomes open – or in most cases, free.
I agree with Marc Andreesson in most of his statements including his reaction to #2:
OK. There is no way that the winner of the upcoming 700-megahertz — Google or anyone else — will be able to have the network itself up and operational in 2008. So this prediction has no relevance for 2008.
In other news, GigaOm released a Tech Trends 2008 show. Check it out here.