Here are just 10 of the things everyone at Line Industries will be watching out for in 2010. Subscription content
If publishers, like News Corp, can find a better way of monetising their content it has to good for the long term. 10 years ago the industry had a dramatic wakeup call, there’s a lot being given away for free right now but it can’t last without impacting the quality of content or products. We should find out next year whether subscriptions are the way forward.
Flash CS5 exporting iPhone Apps
Adobe’s CS5 release will allow ActionScript 3 developers to produce iPhoneApps. This means a bunch of developers will instantly be able to produce iPhone apps. As iPhone Apps have to be approved by Apple it will be interesting to see how their Developer Program will cope.
Click here to find out about Adobe Flash CS5 Click here to find out about the iphone developer program HTML 5
Whether we’ll see a finalised spec and full browser support for the implementation of HTML 5 in 2010 remains to be seen but some of the features are looking really exciting. The canvas element for drawing graphics on the fly has hugely exciting possibilities, as well as client side storage, video & audio support & semantic mark up enhancements there’s lots to look forward too.
IE6
While many of us hoped that the life support machine for IE6 would havebeen switched off by now,
Microsoft’s announcement back in August this year meant we’ve got another few years of challenging backwards compatibility testing ahead of us. Now there’s something to lookforward to in 2010 and beyond ...
Flash on mobiles
Whilst Apple takes a stand against Flash, other rival operating systems are looking to enable it on their handsets in 2010. First up will be Palm’s Web OS probably following by Google’s Android and the Windows Mobile. This will mean that lots of handsets will have the full web available to them and we are likely to see a shift towards surfing on the phone. Potential problems are battery life and bandwidth problems. See it working on the Palm Pre below:
Apple tablet
The much rumoured, mocked up and very secret Apple Tablet I’m predicting will appear this year. There have been lots of mock ups of sites running on a tablet, watch the sport illustrated mock up below:
Apple have demonstrated that they can make a lot of money form a mobile app store, so it would make good business sense to have one for a tablet. This may mean that Apple will create a closed system, which means the tablet could be a lot less flexible than a laptop/PC. Its all pure speculation at the moment, lots of people have spent most of 2009 speculating, but hopefully Apple will do a reveal and we’ll be able to buy/use/develop for it.
Mobile payments
'Square', the new mobile payment system from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced it's private beta earlier this month. Square enables merchants to accept payments via the Apple iPhone and is set to roll out 'to everyone' early next year. With old payment technologies proving cumbersome in comparison (or being phased out altogether like the cheque) 2010 could see a massive growth in mobile payment systems.
Google phone, Android and Windows Mobile 7
The rumours of the first Google mobile phone are no doubt causing mild palpitations at Apple HQ. Google’s Android operating system is already proving to be the hottest thing since sliced bread with dozens of new Android handsets promised in the first half of 2010. Microsoft will be hoping they can regain some ground with their long overdue operating system Windows Mobile 7, and I don’t expect Apple will be resting on its iPhone laurels either. 2010 promises to be an exiting year for smartphones and mobile web browsing.
Silverlight 4
We’re already up to version 4 of Microsoft’s take on Flash (though I don’t think the folks at Redmond like to hear Silverlight described that way!) Until now there’s been no sign of Silverlight upsetting Flash’s position as the ubiquitous technology in this space, but with the hotly anticipated version 4 just around the corner, 2010 might just be the year that Silverlight comes of age.
Chrome OS
Web browser as operating system? For me personally this feels like a step backwards in time, not forward. Anyone remember dumb terminals and mainframes? No? Anyone? Ok, just me then. But if anyone can pull it off it’s Google, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this. If nothing else it might result in increased usage of Google’s Chrome web browser – yet another platform to test against!