Hot gadgets and trends for 2008

I am going to go out on a limb here and make some predictions for 2008. Where is the tech/gadget world going to go and what sort of products are going to be hot, hot, hot in 2008? What will disappear from the shelves and what are we going to be seeing more and more of? Will someone crack the iPhone’s hold on the market or will Mr. Jobs screw another few million from it? Will the linux OS finally grab a hold of the consumer spending dollar or will it forever be consigned to geeks-only?

Phones

Unquestionably THE gadget of 2007, the iPhone continues to dominate the news both in the U.S.A. and Europe. Not all of it good. Apple have been accused of illegal business practices in several European countries, and the European courts have now banned Apple from selling locked iPhones only. The retailers have of course reacted by charging some pretty ridiculous prices and the arguments continue unabated. A decent profit from a product is not unreasonable to ask, but it’s clear they have been just plain greedy and suffered some backlash in the form of poor sales, particularly in the U.K and Germany. So where next:

Apple will continue to strangle the market, forcing prices up as far as possible and hanging on to their right to charge whatever they feel like until…..

Until someone brings out a decent competitor for the iPhone. That’s what we all need to be hoping for in 2008. My money is on either Nokia or Samsung. Samsung missed the boat completely with their F700, but this time, they’ll get it right – late 2008, just in time for Christmas and too late after Nokia’s attempt.

Nokia have been messing around trying to get their Aeon just right, and I am predicting a fully functional, ready to go, iPhone killing, far more realistic version on the market at some point in 2008. From what rumblings I hear, I would say at the latest by the start of the summer vacation.

E-book readers.

Can anybody hear the sound of brick dropping? Despite the fact that I personally like the idea, particularly the Seiko and the Amazon Kindle….….. It ain’t gonna happen. For a variety of reasons. Most importantly - We are all intimately familiar with the vagaries and fast paced nature of the technology/gadget world and all of a sudden we are now being sold a product that will pay for itself in the money saved by buying books? Without going out-of-date by next week? Puuuuulleeeze! Pull the other one guys. Secondly, no matter what they say, it’s not the same as reading a piece of paper. The only way these will take off in a big way is if they give them away and make the money selling the books.

Televisions

It doesn’t take a genius to predict what will happen here. I gaze into my crystal ball *cue sound of strange music and the smell of patchouli* It’s all becoming clear…

Bigger, thinner, wider, lighter, even bigger, and most importantly, cheaper. Expect to pay the same price in today’s terms for a flat screen plasma TV as you were paying ten tears ago for it’s outdated equivalent. Cheap is the word here. Then, just as the market becomes saturated – Bang! a new format, new design, new transmission system that requires we all throw our seriously low tech plasma HDTV out the window for a new one. But that won’t be until 2025. You heard it here first.

Traditional Hard Drives

More and more, the manufacturers are coming up with ways of incorporating flash memory into their boxes. Wave goodbye to the traditional hard drive, perhaps not completely in 2008, but we will certainly see the start of the trend. Sony, Sandisk, pretty much all the majors are working hard on this one. It’s still a little too expensive, still a little too small a capacity, but this is the way forward.

Operating systems

Apple’s new Leopard OSX, despite a few niggles on installation is possibly the best operating system I have ever used. Microsoft XP,… well lets just say I’m a mac fan and leave it at that, but it seems they have put a large amount of effort into it. But Linux has come a long way recently and there are a growing number of free apps along with a growing number of PCs and UMPCs coming with a Linux OS pre-installed. It might not have all the bells and whistles of the big two, but I see 2008 as the year of the free OS – Linux. For the first time, they are able to offer a reasonable alternative along with some well put together open source software. Look out for a Linux loaded PC near you this fall.

So, who else has some predictions?

There is an interesting alternative view to what’s hot for 2008 here.

WNBC have an interesting video here with some good guesses. You do, unfortunately, have to sit through the weather forecast before they get down to it so if anyone is looking for a video editing job, I guess they are hiring.

The MSN Tech and gadget blog takes a look at the new gadgets at CES.

Ask Men have a pretty good look at their hottest gadgets for 2008 - They also have a pretty fine collection of photographs of the 2008 swimwear collections - I think it’s going to be a good year.