Roundtable Discussion: What Will The Next Decade in Tech Be Like?

As our fifth anniversary nears, our co-founder Jason Roflsky sat down with some of our writers to talk about what we think the next decade in technology will be like ten years from now. Here's a partial transcript of the wide-ranging discussion.

Alright, um, let's start off by talking about cell phones. What are cell phones going to be like ten years from now?

Well, I think what we're going to see is, we're going to see a wider range of new cell phone forms... just a lot of experimentation with the ubiquitous clamshell design, rethinking the keyboard, that sort of thing. It's not just going to be a bunch of boring, black rectangles.

Microsoft is going to continue dominating the mobile space, I think that's fairly obvious. We're going to see Windows Mobile continue to eat away at BlackBerry's market share, take over the enterprise, and eventually take over the consumer market too. The three big players are going to be Microsoft, RIM, and Palm.

Speaking of Microsoft, the Xbox console is an unstoppable freight train, and it's easy to see why: they listen to the fans. By the time Xbox 3 rolls around, either Nintendo or Sony's PlayStation division will be a distant memory.


Devices, okay. What new devices will there be? I know Bill Gates has been talking about tablet computers a lot.

With the massive success of the iPod, I think Apple is going to use that experience and try their hand at new devices: boomboxes, jukeboxes, music boxes, etc. Any kind of box, really.

I know this sounds crazy, but I think some company is going to try to make "smart glasses." Like a phone for your face. Wouldn't that be something?


Interesting. What about the web? What trends will we see in 2013?

The whole social media thing is a fad that will evaporate soon.

Image macros are on the wane. I think we've seen the last of them. Nevertheless, eBaum's World is going to keep growing and I wouldn't be surprised if they scooped up an "old media" company and started producing TV shows, something of that nature.

There's been all these rumors about Google going public in the next year, but I really don't see a whole lot of room for growth for them. There's the search engine, the ads, and the News feature I guess, but that's pretty much it. Search is a feature, not a product. I think there's an opportunity for Yahoo! or AOL to make a big acquisition here.

There will be a software application that will allow teenagers to take pictures, instantly apply photo filters to them, and share them with other people on the Web. It will be sold for $1 billion to a Friendster clone worth over $100 billion.

The government is gonna be spying on all of us, man. I'm talking big, huge databases monitoring everything we do online.


Let's try to stay serious here. What tech innovations would you like to see?

I hope radio shows make a comeback.

I'd like to see someone reinvent the pager for the 21st century.

You know away messages in AIM, where people let their friends know what they're doing? It would be interesting if there was a whole site dedicated to people's statuses. I hope nobody steals this idea.

Honestly, I think we're in a good place right now. I don't think we need any more innovation.