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Looking to the year ahead through the lens of social media, computing, mobile, and web technology.
Max Gladwell keeps its own calendar, which ends on April 1st each year. We offer a different 12-month period through which to reflect and look forward based on the Max Gladwell launch date.
For the standard calendar year, we look to predictions being made by others and offer our own perspective. This year, we look at ReadWriteWeb’s 2010 Predictions and cherry pick the best ones.
1. Marshall Kirkpatrick: A new social network will rise to join the big ones. It may offer the privacy that Facebook is moving away from, it may be mobile and location-centric, it may focus on personal content recommendations.
MG: This is just as much hope as prediction, specifically the location part. There is huge potential and value in networking local communities. This platform will demand unparalleled privacy and security because you’ll be dealing with people’s locations and potentially home addresses (which are already publicly available, but this will makes them more accessible and revealing). Nevertheless, the social value of being more connected and aware of our neighbors will be worth it.
2. Alex Williams: A new breed of social networks will emerge that act as one-stop shops for applications and services. These will look more like marketplaces than social hubs for conversations around the proverbial virtual water cooler. SaaS leaders will face off for this growing market.
Max Gladwell (MG): Expanding on the above, we’ll see more browser-based applications, thanks in part to HTML5, that are cross-compatible with laptops and smartphones. Developers will more easily be able to repurpose their iPhone apps for the web.
3. Sarah Perez: The iPhone still rules and grabs more mobile market share than ever before.
MG: This is pretty obvious, but we also shouldn’t underestimate the power of the iPhone. Despite deficiencies with AT&T and several missing features, the iPhone is still five to 10 years ahead of its competition. Its value continues to be unlocked and expanded on a daily basis. The only thing to challenge it in terms of people’s attention will be Apple’s forthcoming tablet.
4. Sean Ammirati: Apple will release an “iTablet” and the world will be a better place for it. Ok, more accurately we’ll all think the world is a better place for it.
MG: The contrarian view might be that Apple’s good fortune has to run out and sooner or later it will fall on its face. While this could be true at some point, it won’t happen with this year’s launch of the iTablet. If it’s anything like we imagine—a bigger, more powerful iPhone with a slew of new features—it will revolutionize mobile computing and take the publishing, broadcasting, and telecom industries with it.
5. Sean Ammirati: Facebook will go public & the IPO will be a huge financial success.
5.1 Jolle O’Dell: Facebook will become the Borg. Its number of users will continue to climb until the network is as ubiquitous as Google and lay people confuse Facebook with “the Internet.” They’ll make more money and control more data than ever before.
MG: We have a poll running about which quarter Facebook’s IPO will occur. Our vote is Q1, and it will become of the most successful tech IPOs ever, setting the stage for a resurgence in tech IPOs for 2010. The memories of the ’90s have faded. We’re into a new decade and pulling out of a deep recession (albeit slowly). All signs point to Irrational Exuberance 2.0.
6. Sean Ammirati: Hyperlocal advertising will heat up, delivering another nail in the traditional newspaper industry’s coffin. Specifically, it will be more common for a local establishment to pay marketing dollars to Yelp or FourSquare, for example, then their local newspaper.
MG: The only thing we’ll add is a quote from Sol Lipman, co-founder of the location-based app Rally. When asked about their revenue model, he responded, “With location-based services, you don’t have to rely on anyone else to make your money. Location is the Holy Grail of advertising.” This is partly because local advertising is more relevant and valuable for consumers. Global and national brands could respond by positioning themselves as more local.
7. Elyssa Pallai: iPhones and other smartphones become the purchasing tool of choice.
MG: This is long overdue. Plastic credit cards should go the way of paper checks and rotary dials. Let us pay for everything with our iPhones.
8. Marshall Kirkpatrick: Facebook will open aggregate user profile and social graph data for outside analysis.
MG: As Facebook opens its data in general, it will be a serious boon to the geolocation space, for in addition to being able to see our friends’ whereabouts (according to their privacy settings), we’ll gain access to anonymous, location-specific data. This will accelerate the ability to have complete geospatial awareness.
What are your predictions for 2010 in social media and sustainability? Prognosticate in the comments.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Turning Winds // Dec 26, 2009 at 12:57 am
Wow. I haven’t even think of it before predicting changes in social media for 2010 but as far social media is concerned what I could predict is that there are more social networking sites like Facebook will come out in 2010. Getting more innovative ideas that could gain members than Facebook.
Let us face it, Facebook had been know all over the world but some needed twist on new ideas that it could give to the public.
The photo reminisce of a Tom Hank’s movie regarding wishes (Zultar).
2 Christian Guitar Lessons // Jan 25, 2010 at 10:47 pm
I personally think that the biggest shift is going to web access from computers into phones. Obviously with the iPhone breaking ground on having a fully functioning browser, I think that having the web in your pocket will have big implications on how things are structured for the web, including how things are streamed, etc. Perhaps PCs with internet will soon be considered outdated “landlines.”
3 Defiant Teenagers // Jun 22, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Well we are half way through 2010 and I think that most of these are now true. Especially #8, Facebook is definitely trying to aggregate all of their user data so they can market products better to them.
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