CES 2012
CRYSTAL BALL

These two likely lads are Steve Koenig and Steve Bambridge.  Respectively they work for the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association – the US trade body that stages CES) and GFK which is a humungous research company.  Their jobs are to track consumer spending on gizmos and gadgets so market analysts can make informed predictions and ruin entire industries.

Soothsaying what will happen in 2012 relies to a large extent on what happened in 2011.  Unless some smarty pants invents a game changer such as the iPad, the crystal ball tends to suggest the continuation of existing trends such as:

Exponential growth in sales of tablet computers such as the iPad.

In 2011 over 50 million tablets (mostly iPads) were sold worldwide.  In 2012 that’s reckoned to increase to around 100 million (mostly iPads).

Other stuff apart from TV channels in TVs

Televisions, as opposed to a computer screen, will become your interface with the World Wide Web.  TVs will have web browsers built in.  They will have apps, like your phone and 3-bleedin’-D.  They will be thin and bezel-less and LED as opposed to LCD or plasma.  Eventually they will be OLED (organic LED). They will all be made in Korea.

Netbooks must die

Tablets and ultrabooks (ie high-powered notebooks/laptops) will kill the netbook (those stunted laptops that were handily compact but not much else).

Increased sales of high-end smartphones will mirror a decline in compact cameras.

The age of the 12 megapixel smartphoneOpposite of dumbphone. Device with which which to do pretty much anything except make telephone calls. The best smartphone handsets, such as the AppleFruit, record label, world dominator in the slick boy's toys department iPhoneCostly but beautiful smartphone made by Apple. The standard by which all other smartphones are judged. and Samsung Galaxy, are expensive (the iPhone 5 starts at £529) and to get a 'free' phone you have to commit to a 2 year contract. As we know, new phones come crashing onto the market all the time, so today's state-of-the-art handset will be seriously old hat long before that contract expires. camera is upon us.

And in other news:

Cheaper smartphones will facilitate all manner of joy and mayhem in ‘emerging markets’ such as Africa and parts of Asia.

India and China will consume more electronic goodies than you could possibly imagine.

The tech industry will continue to leech off Apple and its innovations.  (That’s not one of Steve & Steve’s predictions but a racing certainty courtesy of TF).