WHAT I WANT TO SEE IN 2013…


2012 has been a great year for technology and signs point to the reality that 2013 will be ground breaking. Here is my list of things I hope and want to see in 2013:
1. With Blackberry 10, RIM  re-establishes itself as a key player in the Smartphone market: RIM is set to launch a brand new OS this January and the company is desperate for this to work. The new smartphones have been leaked over and over in the past few weeks and so far they look awesome. Last year blackberry was plagued with Corporate shakedowns and intermittent outages. It hopes to re-invent itself in the smartphone market with the launch of its new OS and line of smartphones early this year. I also want RIM to make it back as a serious competitor in the consumer market not only in the enterprise market. One main reason I want this to happen is to make sure the market is not only dominated by Android and iOS. Yes Windows 8 just launched but their devices are still crap and they still cannot compete with pricing. (ie. iPad mini vs Nexus 7, vs Kindle Fire vs Surface). Having another serious heavyweight come back into the market will only be good for the consumer- more push to innovate and more drops in pricing. This year I will be cheering for RIM.
2.  Apple TV re-invents home entertainment: There has been a lot of chatter lately that Apple is close to figuring out the biggest problem with TV- how to find and organize content….across platforms! 2012 was the year of the 3D TV’s, LED TV’s, SmartTV’s, Edgeless Displays, etc…This was well and good but none of them answers the most basic question in our TV viewing experience- why is there nothing worth watching when I have 1,000 of TV channels? It is not like there is a drought of good quality content on TV, its just that finding the right content is like finding a needle in a hay-stack. Say I have Hulu, Netflix, BBC iPlayer and my Service provider HD Cable. This set up will provide me with thousands of programming options every time I decide to sit on my Lazyboy- however I always find myself struggling to find a decent show/ movie to watch. By the time I find one, I would have spent almost an hour browsing through content and switching between platforms- a huge inefficiency. Someone- and I hope Apple- will crack this puzzle this year.
3.  All Major Service Providers to start offering Unlimited Data Plans: Today’s smartphones and App economy is being tied down by the refusal of Service Providers to offer truly unlimited data plans. Some people who had unlimited data may still get it as a grandfathered feature but almost all the Major service providers are still reluctant to bring it back to market. Their main reason is that it puts too much stress on the network- some people say this is bull. Some people say the middle ground is to provide unlimited data option for a premium for now, and when it scales up prices can start to come down. Some service providers have even resorted to Throttling data speeds especially for those on grandfathered unlimited plans- this too should stop. I am a supporter for open internet and limitations on bandwidth and data volume only creates an environment where every one misses out on the full benefits of technology. I believe the market is at a point where Service Providers are able to afford offering Unlimited Data and we should see that start in 2013.
4. Internet Privacy becomes a major Legislative Agenda: I see 2013 as the year when discussion about Online Privacy becomes a major legislative talking point. This will be mainly due to the fact that more and more people will be engaged in online services that collect data. 2013 will be a year where people cross the threshold, where mobile technology is not only viewed as a hobby but a necessity. Facebook has surpassed 1 Bn members while Twitter and Instagram have doubled their subscriber base in 2012 alone- the trend is inevitable- people will start to depend on mobile internet technology in the next year. Every day we see Venture Capitalists seeding a lot of start-ups that focus on Mobile (aps, content, etc) because that is where the market is going. As more and more people are engaged in these online services thru mobile- the question on how their Data and Personal information is used becomes ever more important. In the past protecting our personal information has been our responsibility (we set out privacy settings ourselves), however as we become more dependent on these services Privacy protection will start to be pushed as a default feature from these online services. I am hoping that in 2013 regulators will start to make it the responsibility of the company to protect our personal information.
These are the major changes I want to see happen in 2013. How about you? Do you have a list of things you want to see happen in 2013 int he field of Tech?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How a robbery in 1976 robbed US citizens of their privacy in the digital age.

B altimore - Shortly after midnight on March 5, 1976 Mrs. Patricia Mcdonough was robbed just outside her home. She was able to take a good look at the robber and his 1975 Monte Carlo automobile. A few days after the robbery, Mrs. McDonough started receiving threatening phone calls from the man claiming to be the robber. Mrs. McDonough started recording some of these threatening phone calls and notified the police. On March 13, the police asked the telephone company to install a terminating accounting equipment on Mrs. Donough's telephone line to determine the origin of the calls she was receiving. The police found out that most of the calls were made from pay-phones near McDonough's residence.  On March 16, in the general vicinity of Mrs. McDonough's home, someone asked a police officer for help in opening the locked door of his 1975 Monte Carlo. The officer helped the man, took down his plate# and notified the investigating officer.  The police ran the pla...
Read more

Justice is blind but the scale is rigged when it comes to whistleblowers.

Image
General David Petraeus was sentenced to two years probation and a $100K fine for leaking classified information (link to  plea deal ). This sentence is nothing short of an insult to the justice system in the United States. It is a clear example of how the justice system in the United States is rigged.  Let us recall what got Petraeus into this mess by looking at two things - i. What did he leak? ii. What was intention for leaking the information?  What did he leak? Petraeus leaked names of covert operatives, war plans for US forces, and detailed discussion with senior officials including the US President. This information was contained in notebooks that Petraeus kept for himself. He then gave Paula Broadwell access to these notebooks to help her write his biography. The information contained in those notebooks are highly classified by any standard and had the potential of endangering US covert operatives.  When Chelsea Manning leaked the Afghan war-l...
Read more

Hiding the truth about Guantanamo force-feeding videos.

From the  Intercept : US Appeals Court won't block the release of Guantanamo force feeding videos of  Abu Wa’el Dhiab.  This decision gets us a step closer to seeing more clearly the kinds of abuse Guantanamo detainees are subject to. We have seen pictures of abuse - both physical and psychological - committed against detainees in the past. The US Senate recently published a report stating that the US government engaged in torture and a lot of them happened in Guantanamo. Just these two things would be enough to justify calls to permanently close down Guantanamo but the Obama administration continues to refuse to set a solid deadline for its closure.  If these videos are released it will renew calls for the closure of Guantanamo with more vigor and outrage. The Obama administration will certainly fight the release because they do not want to be put in a corner about Guantanamo. They cannot risk the public having a renewed outrage over Guantana...
Read more