The WOW! Buzz

Last week I discussed a couple of technology trends evident in 2010.  Not a complete list by any means, but it begs the question as to what might be in store for 2011.  Here are my thoughts, for what it’s worth:

The Rise of the SSD:  I suspect that the “solid state drive” will become more mainstream this next year, replacing the conventional hard disk drives in many applications.  Currently, they are quite expensive relative to the storage that they provide, but the advantages are also huge–up to 80% less power consumption (a real boon in laptops and other portable devices), highly reliable (no mechanical parts to fail), and data transfer is wicked fast.  I suspect that costs of this technology will come down this next year, and it will move into mainstream computing applications.  I hope and expect that this technology will in the next several years find its way into DVR, TiVo, other video servers, and even television sets to enable time shift /storage of video content.

Panel HDTV–You may expect continued development on this front in 2011.  I believe that LED backlighting will become more ubiquitous (because of power savings and increased light control resulting in better picture) and that the current premium price paid for LED backlighting will attrite significantly.  Internet ready features will continue to be heavily marketed, and my thought is that capability will increase, interfaces will improve, and other manufacturers (other than Samsung) will figure out how to deal with the dynamic internet content provider environment.  (See previous blog on the subject here)  3D will continue to be marketed, although acceptance of this technology thus far has been lukewarm at best.  In short, expect larger, lighter panels that exhibit superb pictures at attractive price points.

Tablet computing–The splash that Apple made with the introduction of the iPad last year has virtually every computer manufacturer on the planet trying to figure out a way to compete with it.  It will be no surprise if several introduce snappy devices like the iPad or Samsung Galaxy.  Most, I think, will be Android based devices or another OS variant of unix (like the iPad).  Further, the rumor mill has it that Apple will introduce a new version of the iPad, probably to include a camera and perhaps have additional interface support.  I expect that the “airprint” and “airstream” (video streaming to larger screens) utilities will become increasingly useful and embrace a host of new devices.

Networked Appliances–If the folks setting up the CES show in Vegas are to be believed, it appears that 2011 may be the year of the networked appliance, not as in an NAS, but as in refrigerator, washer, dryer, etc.  Whether this really takes off or not is hard to say, but it may be the genesis of technologies which allow for better energy conservation and utilization (tying into “smart grid” technologies, etc.)  It will be an interesting space to watch.

Until next time….