5. Standard game controllers
The Xbox 360 controller you use today will morph into something more radical, a combination of the Nintendo Wiimote with accelerometer sensors, video systems that scan your body movements (ala Microsoft's Project Natal), and various hardware add-ons such as Guitar Hero controllers and nunchucks.
Gaming will change from a singular activity with one controller to group gaming where the console senses who is in the room and lets them control more fluid interfaces.
6. Desktop PCs
All hail the mighty desktop! Your reign is coming to an end. OK, for engineers, developers, video production artists, and gamers, maybe not. For most computer users, the desktop already is dead, according to IDC reports showing that desktop sales have stagnated and netbooks and notebook sales are rising fast.
The reason: Intel and AMD processors and graphics chipsets in notebooks can now compete with desktop equivalents. And, portability is no longer just a market segment – every computer user has realised the benefits.
Gartenberg claims even the notebook has a precarious love affair and will be replaced by an as-yet-unknown information appliance, some kind of morph between a netbook, booklet, smartphone, and notebook.
7. Operating systems
For the hardcore computer science gurus, yes – an OS must always exist to manage memory and core functions. Yet, the bloatware of today will be replaced by an extremely thin OS that maybe doesn't have a name, and certainly is not run by a commercial entity.
Instead, computing will be pervasive, says Peddie, and hard to pin down to just one OS running on an LCD screen. "OSes will vanish and we'll have a monolithic browser that manages everything," he says. "We talk to it, it sees us and recognises our moods, clothes, and those around us to deliver the appropriate information."
8. Blogging
One reason blogging, and micro-blogging on Twitter, has become so popular has to do with the one-way nature of web communications. We post our thoughts, people read them.
In ten years, the web will become much more interactive, as proven by services such as Qik.com (where you can stream live photos and video) and Google Wave, which allows you to see what someone is typing. Also, crowd-sourcing will replace the pundits (ahem) and lead to better overall information sharing.
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Your comments (16) Click to add a new comment
mag7ue
December 18th 2009
16. I don't necessarily disagree that land line telephones will be gone, but to say "most companies have already adopted VoIP?" I think that's a bit presumptious.
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troyguffey
November 7th 2009
15. 1. Keyboard and Mouse
They will probably still be used in the future, especially the keyboard! There's nothing like the tacticle feedback of a keyboard to help you type faster. As long as pure text is used, keyboards will still be around. The mouse movement might get replaced by eye-tracking, but then how do you decide clicking? When voice-understanding becomes mostly reliable, pure text input will decrease, but there are still environments you DON'T want to speak aloud.
2. Public Wi-Fi
Yes, I agree it might go down.
3. The Landline Phone
There's one big advantage a old-fashioned land-line phone has: it's powered by the phone company from THEIR end. If you have a power outage in a snowstorm that is killing your cell-phone, you can still call the power company up.
4. Optical Discs
Optical disks are still useful for private backups. They are longer-lived than present flash-drives, which would be the other technology for backups and software installs. Physcial storage is the ULTIMATE bandwidth. Relying TOTALLY on the Internet is for overconfident idiots.
5. Standrard Game Controls
These CAN'T really be replaced by anything less than a neural interface. What good is a body language reader when you want to sit back in your chair and play an old-style side-scroller arcade game? And there's a reason some games are called "Twitch-games"
6. The Beloved Desktop Computer
Possibly, but desktops will always have the advantage for enthusiasts who want to use fast custom hardware. Wireless technologies will ALWAYS lag behind a hard-wired in-box device.
7. Operating Systems
Computer-science-wise it's impossible as others have pointed out.
8. Blogging, the end of an era?
There's always going to be a place for the blog archive. A LOT of the forces that drive blogging today are the times that you DON'T WANT to have real-time two-way interaction with someone.
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rnojonson
October 8th 2009
14. Let's re-adjust this vision a little. Keyboards will get thin like laptop keyboards, have finger/pen pads integrated into them, wireless mice will be standard.
ATX cases will become near extinct except for gamers and modders who tinker and like power. The laptop format will flourish even for desktops, but desktop displays will be detached. A desktop will have a laptop base and the display of your choice, also short range wireless video will happen. The portable laptop will be as it is now. The iphone style touch screen will replace the mouse pad and will incorporate pen pad functions.
Some voice control maybe akin to that Sync thing on car phones, no more than simple commands. I really don't want to talk to my machine. The cores of multi-core cpu's will be as separate computers so that real multi-tasking can happen. One can run the interface, another the computing, another the data management, the video, etc. I hope we don't soon see a single digital device that can swallow every digital device including the TV remote and garage door opener so if it breaks there are thousands of people standing in their driveways shouting why me at the same time, talk carbon footprints!
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scottgilbert
October 5th 2009
13. last one, think about those who have no voice, can not speak, what are we supposed to do? fart?
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awirthy
October 2nd 2009
12. First of all keyboards and mice are going anywhere, you can't everything with a touch screen that you can do with a keyboard and mouse. For certain areas and uses yeah, but it won't completely replace the keyboard and mouse.
As for optical disks, as long as there are bricks and mortar businesses there will be optical disks. Whether it be floppy disks or Blu-ray we have always had a physical storage medium, and there is no reason to stop now.
No 5 I find is complete ******** because the Xbox 360 aims toward a different demographic. It aims toward the more hardcore gamer, if they were to change their controller they would lose there advantage in that area and be challenging the Wii for the same audience in which Wii dominates.
As for the desktop PC as long as there are gamers, schools and tech savvy tinkerers around there will always be desktop PC although they might be a smaller market.
The quote "OS's will vanish and we'll have a monolithic browser that manages everything," is stupid because an OS is a browser that manages everything and there is no reason to replace it.
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jbrandonbb
October 1st 2009
11. I am the author of the article. It is really hard to imagine not using a keyboard, esp. as you are typing on one. But, on smartphones, they are already starting to disappear with speech-to-text searches. The PC itself is changing -- smartphones are becoming computers, so the full size keyboard has already gone away. Now fast forward ten years. We're not even sure what a PC will look like then, but it will be closer to an iPhone than a Dell.
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