Predicting the future might be a fool's game, but that doesn't stop pundits from reading the bones-- and as far as predictions go, few can be more interesting than those from Apple co-founder (with Steve Jobs) Steve Wozniak.
Speaking to Forbes, Wozniak predicts a year of cross platform collaboration, data centres and voice control, as well as flexible displays and increasingly popular Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) schemes. Here are the predictions below...
- Businesses will look to use collaboration solutions that “just work”-– for every possible need: Collaboration will be available on all kinds of devices, with software shifting from "lite" apps to all-in-one tools ideal for an increasingly mobile workforce. Consumerisation also demands easy operation, and Wozniak predicts simplicity will divide the winners from the losers here.
- Data center technologies will be to 2013 what the Cloud was for 2012: Data centre technology are to receive more attention this year. After all, more efficient data centres (through technologies such as NAND flash) will result in more efficient cloud services.
- Consumer technologies believed to be years in the making will enter the workplace sooner than we expected: According to Wozniak we will be able to control devices across a room with via voice, flexible displays will become more economical, mobile devices will act as the remote controls of the world and the set-up process will be (finally) eliminated.
- Businesses will think differently about BYOD and consumerization of IT: Businesses will continue adapting to the BYOD trend while investing in the diversification of the platforms and devices they support. "Choice" is happiness, after all.
- Collaboration will transcend platforms: Collaboration packages must be able to run on most (if not all) platforms in 2013, the year Wozniak calls "the year of choice."
Go Woz, The Great and Powerful: His IT Forecasts for 2013 (Forbes)
