2009: A Bright Year for Smartphones and Storage? - Page 2

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Data storage will return to its origins

Throughout 2008 enterprises scrambled to bring in bigger boxes, software tools and reached upward to the cloud environment to find cheap housing for the growing data piles.

While vendors responded to the data storage demand with zest -- even promising ways to gain greater efficiencies around storage environments -- this year will be a year where IT folks need to sit down and take time to stem the data tide.

Storage strategies will shift from being reactive to proactive, with much more attention on making sure what's being housed and protected is needed and necessary data. Cheap storage is great but it's led to massive sprawling storage environments that are costing more to management and run. So it may turn out the 'savings' from cheaper storage isn't so big after all.

Businesses will begin realizing that throwing cheaper commodity boxes and software at data isn't the best approach and go back to the beginning of the entire process to begin parsing out what needs to be saved, how it needs to be saved and even involve users in the process.

A pivotal year for Moto and Palm

The word heard, and written, throughout 2008 when it came to Motorola and Palm -- both titans in the handset world and top leaders at some points -- was turnaround. Like in when will there be a turnaround? Is the turnaround now?

The resounding answer in 2008 was 'no' and Santa didn't deliver one as the year ended. In fact Motorola capped off one of its worst mobile division years with more layoffs, cut backs in CEO pay and a freeze on bonuses and pension contributions.

Palm, struggling mightily, kept talking all last year about its upcoming new platform and heralded a "newness" campaign to be launched in early January. It pushed out some decent handsets, but market share continued to erode as did its stock price.

Buyout rumors that cropped up last year could very well become reality this year. Motorola, despite naming a new chief to run its mobile division as a spin-off, could be forced to sell it off. Analysts have publicly pondered who would be interested in Palm's portfolio. It's not a dead product line, but it clearly needs more than just a new OS to push it back into the smartphone ring as a contender.

The big question though is just who else out there will have the cash flow to buy either one in an economy where there is no lending or borrowing to be had.

How smart will smartphones get?

Anyone who can remember using a Trac phone, or gasping in awe at the 'mobile' phones that "General Hospital" actors used in the soap opera the late 1980s and early 1990s can appreciate how far mobile phones have come in such a short time.

Smartphones are pretty darn smart. And with mobile application research taking place everywhere, from IBM's labs to Nokia's development conferences, we're just at the very start of what's to come with device capabilities.

It's a bit boring and safe to predict but there will likely be lots more location-based mobile services, beyond mapping and finding things and places online, cropping up in 2009. The increasing popularity of GPS capabilities is evidence of the user demand. People want to save time any way possible these days.

Expect more personal productivity applications that will turn smartphones into virtual personal assistants that provide useful reminder alerts, time management tools and ways to help us track down the people we need to reach even quicker than today.

Innovation is wide open at this point. Maybe someone will figure out how to make phones that are off turn themselves on when an incoming call from our 'preferred' contact list hits it’s a network identifier.

Vendors, eager to satisfy the needs of Web hungry consumers, might figure out bigger display options without increasing device heft. Some studies have shown users aren't thrilled with tiny smartphones and are willing to give up form factor coolness for better viewing capabilities.

It's a very open road when it comes to smartphone development and given all the players, from handset makers to carriers to third party application providers, there's no limit in sight on advanced technologies to come.