I have been battling writer’s block for some time now.  So, I though perhaps a brain dump would get things going again.  But rather than the typical randomness, I thought I would try something a little different, and focus my randomness into the future, or to be precise, some things I think we will see (or not see) in 2009.

Tech

Twoogle – Twitter will be acquired in 2009 by somebody (like Google).  Its lack of pure business model will come under pressure from other’s trying to profit off of it (magpie), and investors will grow weary of waiting, pushing the company into making the sale.

Android for everybody – will become the belle of the mobile ball.  Microsoft will release Windows Mobile 7 but despite being a superior platform, players like HTC and Motorola will continue putting it in underpowered phones, so people will still be frustrated with it, people will finally look honestly at the flaws of the iPhone (and the continued lack of cut and paste support), Palm will have another delay in its next generation OS and thus Android will win by default.

Entertainment

Slot This in the loser column – Slot Music, the new “format” for digital music that few have heard of and even fewer have bought into will die, alone and unloved.  However nobody will notice or care.

Blu-Who – While lower prices (especially on closeout version 1.1 machine continue) will improve Blu-Rays uptake rate a bit, it will continue to be a no show to DVD sales, and will be severely threatened by downloadable and/or streaming video to the home.

Roku that’s who – naturally somebody will have to dominate the streaming set top box.  So far the leaders are Roku and Tivo.  Tivo has been on tech “death watches” for some time, and could be snatched up by somebody, but I think it is Roku, with their $99 box which already has deals in place with the likes of NetFlix and Amazon that will be snapped up by somebody.

Blockbusted - Could this be the beginning of the end for Blockbuster?  I certainly think so, and wouldn’t be surprised to see them filing for Bankruptcy by year end.  Unless of course they come up with some sort of deal like Netflix has with Roku.  Streaming removes that last “advantage” of Blockbusters brick and mortar locations, which could actually turn into what winds up being the nail in  Blockbuster’s coffin as those locations become lots of little wells of red ink.

Half-Blood Prince, Full Blood Hit – Harry Potter and Company will smash the box office record.

Out of Thin Air

(These are the ones I have no basis at all on which to prognosticate… some cynical, some humors, a few are serious and some are just wild guesses… as if the others weren’t just guesses)

Add another 3 – Guy Kawasaki will launch 3 new companies that people will only care about because it is Guy Kawasaki.  He will grow tired of them and move on long before his followers do.

Rebel without repercussions – Additional dirty (and illegal) tactics that were done by Vice-Prresident Cheny will be uncovered.  There will be a lot of talk, but nothing will actually be done to him for it, or any other of the war crimes he commited.

Windows  7 – will not make an appearance this year.  There will be hints, suggestions, maybe even a target date, but it will slip at least until the first quarter of 2010.

Apple Byte – Some hacker will finally write a nasty virus that will hurt Apple.  Apple fanboys the world over will swallow hard and prepare for the “told ya so’s” from Windows users.

Here we go again - Once again the term “MommyBlogger” will tear up BlogHer.  People will make “team” avatars for Twitter based on “Yes I am a MommyBlogger and proud of it” and the “I am more than a MommyBlogger” crowd.  It will die off 2 weeks later, but the avatars will remain for months afterwards.

F for effort – We will hear of at least three plots to kill President Barack Obama.  None of which will actually be carried out, and only one of which will actually be feasible to actually be carried out.  Rush Limbaugh will argue that this is proof that Americans are tired of Obama and are just trying to save the country from his socialist ways.

Back to the evil future - In a return to 80′s style stupidity and disregard for human life, either an abortion clinic or family planning center will be target of a bomb.

Markets will not make a full recovery – it is going to take a long time to get  out of this mess, and while change may inspire confidence, problems will still take a longer time to fix.

Sign of the times – At least one College or University will announce a program that will give all incoming freshman a Netbook.

iTunes will still have DRM music – Apple is slow to embrace change desired by their users.  Amazon will start to cut into iTunes sales as more people give up on the iTunes store.

So what do you have?  what does your crystal ball show for  2009?