What's In Store for Technology in 2011

It has been a big year in personal technology, from the debut and early success of Apple's iPad, to the rise and continuous improvement of Google's Android smart phone platform, to the continued surge in social services led by Facebook and Twitter.

Apple: Coming off a highly successful 2010, in which it introduced a new category of portable computer—the multitouch tablet—and sold millions of the product, Apple will have to withstand an onslaught of competitors by wowing consumers again with the second version of the iPad. At the same time, it will have to make a widely expected transition for the iPhone from a single carrier in the U.S., AT&T, to a second, likely Verizon

Google: The search giant, also riding high, is now in so many product areas it competes with nearly everyone. In its core search business, it must focus on fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Microsoft's Bing by giving consumers more attractive, actionable results.

Microsoft: The software giant still generates strong consumer loyalty with its older products, like Windows and Office and Xbox, all of which have had updates in the past year or two. But it faces big challenges in two hot areas: smart phones and tablets. Its new Windows Phone 7 platform has some nice design features, but also some missing capabilities that need to be addressed.

RIM: The BlackBerry maker had a good 2010 in some ways, though sales were propped up by two-for-one giveaways, and consumer surveys show enthusiasm fading for the iconic smart phone. The company has an answer: a new software platform called QNX, but is vague on when that will show up on the BlackBerry. For 2011, RIM's big move will be a new QNX-based tablet, the PlayBook, which looks speedy and highly attractive in the limited demos RIM has provided.

HP: The technology behemoth's laptops and printers have proved popular with consumers. But it hasn't had any real presence in smart-phones, tablets or consumer cloud services. To solve the problems, in 2010 HP bought innovative but struggling Palm, whose smart-phone operating system, webOS, and phones, the Pre and Pixi, got good reviews but sold poorly and didn't attract many third-party apps.

Facebook and Twitter: The twin leaders in social networking were red-hot in 2010, attracting vast numbers of users. They have huge opportunities for further success, but face challenges. Smaller services, like social-coupon company Groupon, continue to emerge with new social and community ideas consumers like.

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HP Introduces Slate 500 Tablet

Hewlett-Packard on Friday introduced its Slate 500, a Windows 7-powered touch screen tablet PC for $799, billing it as "the ideal PC for professionals who don't work at a traditional desk, yet need to stay productive in a secure, familiar Windows environment."

Besides the iPad, the Slate 500 will compete against the Android-powered 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which will retail for $599.99 at Verizon Wireless in November; the 5-inch Dell Streak from AT&T, for $550, and a 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that Research in Motion announced in September. Since Apple launched the iPad last April, it has sold more than seven million units. Apple has marketed the iPad as mainly a consumer device.

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FiOS Flex View - TV Everywhere Taken to the Next Level

I had talked about some of the recent announcements that point to the evolution of TV Everywehre services beyond authentication and online channel availability. The recent announcements (here and here) point to wider availability of premium content (TV shows and movies) on more connected devices.

Although Verizon hasn't yet announced services that extend pay-TV offerings to devices such as connected game consoles or televisions, its Flex View feature is a start. It's a video store where VoD content (rented and purchased) can be viewed on up to five authorized devices - FiOS set-top boxes, mobile phones (currently supported models include the HTC Imagio, the Samsung Omnia 2, the Blackberry Storm 2, the DROID X, the DROID 2, and Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets), PCs/laptops/netbooks, and Windows® PlayReady® compatible portable media players. It's an interesting concept, where content can be purchased/rented from any of these devices and viewed on any of them as well. From our recent studies (TV 2.0: The Consumer Perspective and All Eyes on Video), we know that there is good demand for multi-platform VoD services, so I would expect Verizon's lead to be followed quickly by other operators.

This pursuit of solutions to bring wider availability of content and viewing experiences in the digital realm is moving quickly to "cloud media" concepts, where consumers will have the capability of virtually hosting all of their media content and content owners and producers have more efficient ways of producing and delivering their content, not only on an enterprise-wide basis, but also straight to consumers. I had an interesting briefing with HP regarding their Media Cloud solutions today. HP is aiming many of its assets at this space, looking at production, post-production, content management, multi-screen delivery, business intelligence, and consumer-facing services such as video access on multiple consumer electronics and RS-DVR features. From both the consumer services perspective and the infrastructure play, this will be an incredibly interesting area to be watching in coming months.

HP Scooped Up Palm, Unveiling Ambition in Mobile Internet Device

HP this afternoon announced its purchase of Palm, the battered smartphone company finally finding itself in the hands of a stronger owner. We were never optimistic about Palm's viability in the smartphone business even as it rolled out WebOS in 2009. Today's results validated that the cutting-throat competition in the smartphone market just produced another victim.

It will be interesting to see if HP will continue to support Pre and Pixi, or HP will just make Palm technology as a core component in its portfolio. During the conference call this afternoon, HP executives confirmed that Palm's technology will be applied to platforms other than mobile handsets, but declined to give timeline/roadmap or specific structure of the Palm division within HP.

My immediate reaction to the deal is whether HP will reduce its reliance on Microsoft Windows Mobile and focus more on internal platform development. Of course, HP people declined to comment on that. Let's wait and find out.

After-hour trading has been brisk for Palm shares. Last time I checked, it was traded at $5.90, 20 cents higher than the offer price from HP--does the market believe another bidder will soon emerge?

HP MediaSmart Server - playing nice with Macs, centralizing content, and pushing media

HP announced some updates to the MediaSmart Servers on Monday (the ex485/ex487). I can't find the official release on their Website to provide a link, but PCMag.com did a nice write-up. The big stuff is the support of Mac back-ups and iTunes streaming, but I got to see the MediaSmart Server in action at a special workshop in November, and I liked some of the media centralization capabilities it brings, as well as the ability to publish photos to sharing sites straight from the Server interface.

A New Way to Go Green?

Imagine taking home a new electronic product and not having to dispose of the mounds of Styrofoam and plastic bags that came wrapped around it in the box. HP has found a way to eliminate most of the conventional packaging by selling its new Pavillion dv6929 notebook computer in a padded messenger bag. HP used this idea to win a competition hosted by Wal-Mart to reduce environmental impact and in turn Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club provide the only locations where the notebook-and-bag combo can be purchased. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if portable DVD players, digital cameras, MP3 players, and cell phones followed this trend? Being able to buy the product you want with the carrying case you need to go with it and none of the annoying mess to go with it.