It’s the end of the year so it’s prediction time. After a bit of head scratching I think I have a few. Mine won’t be as depressing as Jason Calacanis’ though.
Here’s what I see for 2006:
1. 2006 will be the year of RSS mods. RSS will become increasingly popular with developers as the model for sharing all types of “services” content and application data. RSS will be everywhere. Digital cameras, for instance, will add RSS feeds for displaying newly captured images. (OK, maybe this is a prediction for 2007.)
2. More than a dozen new devices will call themselves “Tablets”. And during this expansion in tablet devices the handwriting in Windows’ Tablet PC OS will become the gold standard.
3. More developers will migrate from stationary, deskbound development environments to mobile workstations. Too non-specific of a prediction? OK. What about by the end of 2006, half of all developers will have a development-capable notebook or will work exclusively on one.
4. A major web player will support ink online. It may not be Tablet ink, but it’ll be ink nonetheless.
5. Steve Jobs will be photographed autographing a Tablet PC. (Hehehe. Not really a prediction, but rather a subliminal signal to the Tablet Underground.)
6. Dave Winer will add EVDO to his travel items and then wonder why he hadn’t gotten it earlier.
7. Blog searching still will not be a solved problem by the end of 2006.
8. By the end of 2006, EVDO will cost one-third of what it does now and many early adopters will have two or three EVDO service plans and devices.
9. A major cartoonist will begin drawing a weekly cartoon exclusively on a Tablet PC.
10. I still won’t know how to draw.
number 9. i think is generally already here.
I don’t know of any “major” cartoonists in particulr, but there are many many cartoonists already doing this. my fav is http://www.vgcats.com/.
and alias sketchbook pro’s marketing has heavily revolved around cartoonists.
BUT WHY? Why aren’t tablet PC’s being heavily marketed to artists and designers?
if the tablet PC manu’s do that then i reckon the market share of tablets would grow tremendously.
finally. I predict that next year i’ll finally get one and use it exclusively as an industrial design student and leave my paper n pens to gather dust. I hope, n pray.. where are u santa when i need u most? 😛
>9. A major cartoonist will begin drawing a weekly cartoon exclusively on a Tablet PC.
Scott Adams draws Dilbert on a Citiq now – not *far* from a tablet 😉