2010 is here and it holds many promises and possibilities for the tech-community in South Africa. I thought to start this year with some predictions.  The great thing about predictions is that it gives one a chance to reflect and think about the year that has passed and also to think about how things that started in 2009 will evolve in 2010.

Let me start with the basics.  I believe that Facebook will continue to grow in 2010.  Twitter.com will gain traction in South Africa and will become even more important as support and marketing tool for companies locally.

We will see lower and lower prices for connectivity. We saw some prices being lowered at the end of 2009, and this trend will continue.  By June 2011 we will not believe how much we used to pay for bandwidth at the end of 2009.  Bandwidth prices will go down and the speed at which we connect will increase dramatically.

As these prices go down we will see more and more innovation from local entrepreneurs starting new online companies.

2010 will also be the year that “the cloud” becomes more and more important.  Office 2010 which is to be released this year is also heavily dependant on the web and we will see more and more programs dependent on connectivity. We will no longer download and install large programmes to our computers we will merely subscribe and access the programmes online. Some of these services are available already, but they have not become mainstream in South Africa yet.

Google’s Chrome OS will be the new kid on the block.  Apple will probably release a new Tablet Mac which will change the way we use our computers and also the way we buy and read magazines.
This year will be full of advancements and surprises and I am looking forward to telling you all about it.