<p> Here are five companies we heard a lot about in 2009, and some predictions of what we might expect from them over the next 365 days.<br /><br />Twitter<br />What a year it’s been for Twitter. Between the Iran protests and the elections in the United States, it’s become the first go-to destination for most major current events. The company’s founders made it into Time magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 “most influential people,” with the likes of Barack Obama and Bernard Madoff. But more importantly, they made it onto Oprah’s show.<br />Twitter also had some recurring problems. It continued to have major site failures, and possibly worse, experienced dangerous security breaches because of password insecurities.<br />So what can we expect in 2010? As the service continues to grow toward 100 million users, the company will start trying to help filter this growing firehose of information. More status updates mean that finding the needles in the Twitter-stack is becoming increasingly difficult for users.<br />Twitter is also hitting an important inflection point with its business model. As it starts charging companies like Google and Microsoft to gain full access to the river of updates, it will need to entirely eliminate the site failures and security errors we’ve seen in the past. Twitter will no longer be seen as a small start-up and will have to act accordingly.<br /><br />Facebook<br />Facebook continues to grow at a mind-boggling pace. It reached 350 million users in 2009 and continue to enroll 6,60,000 new users each day. If it keeps growing at this rate, it could reach half a billion users by July 2010.<br />What else can we expect from the college kids turned billionaires on paper? Senior Facebook employees say that the company started turning a profit this year from advertising sales and that it hopes to share the wealth with a potential public offering.<br />Although Facebook seems as though it’s well on its way to breaking a whole set of online records, it also has its share of problems. The once-innovative application platform has now started to become a burden to some users. The company will also need to find a quick solution to the nonstop Facebook spam, which is generated because anyone can contact you and invite you to any number of events and fan pages.<br /><br />AT&T<br />When I was a kid and I got into trouble at school, my mother would say, “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when your father gets home!” Well, with all the cellular trouble AT&T is dealing with lately, I wouldn’t want to be in its shoes, either.<br />AT&T continued to add millions of new iPhone users through 2009, yet its customers persistently deal with major connection problems in large metropolitan areas. Some reports say this is caused by an iPhone hardware error, others solely blame AT&T’s infrastructure. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that customers are growing increasingly frustrated with higher data and phone pricing plans, and deteriorating service. The new year will bring a range of new, innovative phones from Google Android, BlackBerry and Palm, all entering the marketplace through Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. So AT&T will be left with two options: finally fix its fragmented service, or deal with an exodus of customers putting down their iPhones and moving to other cellular networks.<br /><br />Sprint<br />Sprint has an opportunity in 2010 to pull back into solid competition with other leading cellular network providers. Over the past year, Sprint has put a concerted effort into placing its customers first. To help solve product problems, it has also started to promote in-store consultations with Sprint clerks. And finally, Sprint offers extremely competitive pricing plans, with $100-a-month unlimited voice, data and messaging. Compare this with AT&T, where the same exact service for the iPhone adds up to $150 a month, or $600 more a year. In 2010, if Sprint recruits new and innovative phones into its arsenal of products, it could take back some market share from Verizon and AT&T in major metropolitan areas. Sprint could also open up new markets by continuing to introduce its 4G data network, and by partnering with more device manufacturers, as it did with Amazon for Kindle.<br /><br />Apple<br />One word sums up Apple in 2010: iSlate. For the past five years, customers and technology mavens have been speculating about a tablet device from Apple. Could 2010 finally bring such a product? The tips coming out of Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters say we might finally see this mystery tablet next year. But why all the commotion and hoopla? Because people are stuck in limbo right now. Some consumers want to transition from print to digital for select reading experiences, including full-color magazines and interactive newspapers. But the technology for making this leap isn’t really here yet. And even with the right device, you need a marketplace to distribute content. With its hugely popular App Store, Apple could be the one to finally make this happen.<br /><br />Also keep an eye on the Apple TV. The original goal with this device was to take over the living room and offer an Internet-connected device hooked into your television. But the walled garden around the Apple TV limits you to accessing only iTunes and YouTube. If Apple can figure out how to open it up and give people access to the whole Internet, the Apple TV could offer another unique entertainment opportunity.<br />The New York Times</p>
<p> Here are five companies we heard a lot about in 2009, and some predictions of what we might expect from them over the next 365 days.<br /><br />Twitter<br />What a year it’s been for Twitter. Between the Iran protests and the elections in the United States, it’s become the first go-to destination for most major current events. The company’s founders made it into Time magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 “most influential people,” with the likes of Barack Obama and Bernard Madoff. But more importantly, they made it onto Oprah’s show.<br />Twitter also had some recurring problems. It continued to have major site failures, and possibly worse, experienced dangerous security breaches because of password insecurities.<br />So what can we expect in 2010? As the service continues to grow toward 100 million users, the company will start trying to help filter this growing firehose of information. More status updates mean that finding the needles in the Twitter-stack is becoming increasingly difficult for users.<br />Twitter is also hitting an important inflection point with its business model. As it starts charging companies like Google and Microsoft to gain full access to the river of updates, it will need to entirely eliminate the site failures and security errors we’ve seen in the past. Twitter will no longer be seen as a small start-up and will have to act accordingly.<br /><br />Facebook<br />Facebook continues to grow at a mind-boggling pace. It reached 350 million users in 2009 and continue to enroll 6,60,000 new users each day. If it keeps growing at this rate, it could reach half a billion users by July 2010.<br />What else can we expect from the college kids turned billionaires on paper? Senior Facebook employees say that the company started turning a profit this year from advertising sales and that it hopes to share the wealth with a potential public offering.<br />Although Facebook seems as though it’s well on its way to breaking a whole set of online records, it also has its share of problems. The once-innovative application platform has now started to become a burden to some users. The company will also need to find a quick solution to the nonstop Facebook spam, which is generated because anyone can contact you and invite you to any number of events and fan pages.<br /><br />AT&T<br />When I was a kid and I got into trouble at school, my mother would say, “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when your father gets home!” Well, with all the cellular trouble AT&T is dealing with lately, I wouldn’t want to be in its shoes, either.<br />AT&T continued to add millions of new iPhone users through 2009, yet its customers persistently deal with major connection problems in large metropolitan areas. Some reports say this is caused by an iPhone hardware error, others solely blame AT&T’s infrastructure. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that customers are growing increasingly frustrated with higher data and phone pricing plans, and deteriorating service. The new year will bring a range of new, innovative phones from Google Android, BlackBerry and Palm, all entering the marketplace through Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. So AT&T will be left with two options: finally fix its fragmented service, or deal with an exodus of customers putting down their iPhones and moving to other cellular networks.<br /><br />Sprint<br />Sprint has an opportunity in 2010 to pull back into solid competition with other leading cellular network providers. Over the past year, Sprint has put a concerted effort into placing its customers first. To help solve product problems, it has also started to promote in-store consultations with Sprint clerks. And finally, Sprint offers extremely competitive pricing plans, with $100-a-month unlimited voice, data and messaging. Compare this with AT&T, where the same exact service for the iPhone adds up to $150 a month, or $600 more a year. In 2010, if Sprint recruits new and innovative phones into its arsenal of products, it could take back some market share from Verizon and AT&T in major metropolitan areas. Sprint could also open up new markets by continuing to introduce its 4G data network, and by partnering with more device manufacturers, as it did with Amazon for Kindle.<br /><br />Apple<br />One word sums up Apple in 2010: iSlate. For the past five years, customers and technology mavens have been speculating about a tablet device from Apple. Could 2010 finally bring such a product? The tips coming out of Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters say we might finally see this mystery tablet next year. But why all the commotion and hoopla? Because people are stuck in limbo right now. Some consumers want to transition from print to digital for select reading experiences, including full-color magazines and interactive newspapers. But the technology for making this leap isn’t really here yet. And even with the right device, you need a marketplace to distribute content. With its hugely popular App Store, Apple could be the one to finally make this happen.<br /><br />Also keep an eye on the Apple TV. The original goal with this device was to take over the living room and offer an Internet-connected device hooked into your television. But the walled garden around the Apple TV limits you to accessing only iTunes and YouTube. If Apple can figure out how to open it up and give people access to the whole Internet, the Apple TV could offer another unique entertainment opportunity.<br />The New York Times</p>
