Given ‘Big Blues’ influence on technology over the past 100 years it’s obvious to say that the firm has been instrumental in the development and direction of this field. That said; their ‘5 in 5’ predictions have merit; yet, whether they come true or not… only time will tell, right? Nevertheless, if their ‘crystal-ball’ is accurate, IBM looks to be vital at least in the early stages of challenging to reach their 200-year milestone.
1) Mind-reading Gadgets: These don’t seem that far-fetched (as bioinformatics already exist within toys by Mattel for example).
2) Biometrics: Password elimination is also not so far-off as this technology is already used for military applications.
3) Kinetic-energy: This makes absolute sense and it seems as though it’ll be an area of continued research / focus for commercialization.
4) The Mobile Revolution: No real surprise here as mobility / smartphones / tablets (especially with the further growth of nations such as China and/or India, etc.) should easily surpass the PC Revolution (by orders of magnitude?)
5) Junk-mail Extinction: 4 out 5 isn’t so bad, right? Countless in-boxes the world over would greatly benefit from this becoming a realty!
Here’s to the future; cheers!
(Source) LA Times: http://goo.gl/7zB2V