2012 what will that bring?

Another very busy year ahead for 2012 both on the work front, technology and at home mainly on the skiing front (and boy is that going to be challenging this year). But here more interested in focusing on the technology front.

Last week I wrote about looking back and how much things have changed over the past decade and it is clear the pace of change will not change over the next decade, in some ways I am sure it will accelerate. In some ways I also think that the growth will not be quite so major.

Tablets and Ultrabooks are an area that will most definitely continue to rise in popularity. It’s been a mixed year for some Tablet makers with some pulling out of the area, such as HP and others such as blackberry struggling. iPad continues to make waves and will be as popular as ever but this year can see the Amazon Fire making in roads in the US, not available yet here in the UK. While the reviews may not be brilliant Amazon create solutions that are practical such as the Kindle, which has proved to be incredibly popular. The iPad will continue it’s dominance this year but I can see it coming under greater threat from other makers. The use of the iPad definitely seems to be making greater in-roads in the business world where a small and light device is needed. Talking to more and more people who use them in the business world where they just need something for the simple work.

This year we will definitely see more and more Ultrabooks appearing on the market and the performance and costs will have an impact on their popularity, there was a big show of them at the Consumer Electronics Show. More companies are changing the way their workface operates with smart working seen as the way to save money of large offices (and the benefit of that is a different story works in some instances but not all) and Ultrabooks could provide a lighter alternative to the traditional laptop to carry around.

3D printing is starting to make inroads. It’s no where near the consumer market in reality as it costs too much and you really have to think where at home you will use it. But more companies are focusing in this area and the equipment will start to drop in price and eventually find its way into homes, but this year will be about making people more aware of the technology, in fact the next couple of years.

HTML 5 will continue to make massive inroads into the way websites appear online and the functionality available. We have already seen lots of advances and it is a very positive step in the right direction. Most users will not realise the impact of this on their usage of the Internet a lot will just happen under the hood. Gallery of sites using HTML5.

Can avoid saying something about Cloud computing. Yes it is a buzz word and it will continue to be promoted by companies this year as the best thing since sliced bread. We are already seeing many more practical uses of Cloud applications and this will continue, in fact a huge amount of what I do now is online in the Cloud. One of the biggest issues is Security and data protection, something very few people really understand but can have devastating effects if not considered.

Probably one of the main areas I would like to see moving forwards even more is Augmented Reality. We are already seeing inroads here but with the impact of Social media on our lives this is certainly an area of growth in the future and something I am going to write about at a different time.

There are many other things I could continue adding to this list and my list is certainly going to be different to many others but for now this is it.