– Google’s Chromebook will triple its marketshare by the end of the year. I can’t figure out what its marketshare is now, but it’s pretty small. Another way of putting this is Chromebook will be a success this year.
– Obama will win the 2012 election, thanks in part to the tech community rallying behind him due to issues like SOPA, visas, and free speech.
– Both Apple and Amazon will make billion-dollar acquisitions. More interestingly, so will Facebook.
– Android will be brought to heel by Google, eliciting both massive complaints and cheers, depending on where you sit.
– Microsoft Windows Phone will become the Bing of mobile (IE, move into double digit market share).
– Microsoft Xbox will integrate meaningfully with the web (Kinect is key), and start to compete in social across the digital spectrum.
– IBM will emerge as a key player in the consumer Internet.
– China will be caught spying on US corporations, especially tech and commodity companies. Somewhat oddly, no one will (seem to) care.
– A heads up display for the web will launch that actually is worth using, but most likely in limited use cases.
That’s about it for now. My next post will summarize all my 2012 predictions, so there’s one neat URL to refer to for future reference. Have a great 2012!
Related:
Predictions 2012: #1 – On Twitter and Media
Predictions 2012: #2 – Twitter As Free Radical, Swiss Bank, Arms Merchant…And Google Five Years Ago
Predictions 2012 #3: The Facebook Ad Network
Predictions 2012 #4: Google’s Challenging Year
Predictions 2012 #5: A Big Year for M&A
Predictions 2012 #6: “The Corporation” Becomes A Central Societal Question Mark