My IT predictions for 2009

I am not a magician or a IT psychic but I'd like to venture some thoughts:

• Windows Vista will gain acceptance, thanks to the good reviews of Windows 7, which actually is an upgrade of Windows Vista.
  


• Windows 7 will be released in November 2009.


• Adoption of Netbooks, which I consider oversized PDAS, will grow by the summer only to drop sharply by the end of the year.
  


• The iPhone will continue to be the major player among smartphones, but Windows Mobile adoption will grow as well (expect previews of Windows Mobile 7 in the autumn) and the Palm Pre will definitely make waves.
  


• Users will start demanding more matte screens, as opposed to unsightly and unusable glossy screens (in laptops) which are actually a fad of the last 3 years.
  


• Interest in Cloud computing will wane to its deserved level: a good technology that certainly will not replace established data centers. They will simply coexist.
  


• Linux and its countless distributions will stay at the same level of acceptance as they are now, no fluctuations.
  


• The Internet will start to become less secure and at the same time less democratic. New laws will arise. Governments will start to intervene more.
  


• Japanese and Chinese will come up with new Internet paradigms and will also be able to start using their languages on the address line: URLs in Japanese and Chinese! Just another sign of the beginning of the end of the Western world predominance in science and technology.