Mobile World Congress kicked off in style on Monday with Microsoft unveiling their latest mobile operating system – Windows 7. The OS looks really slick with some really nice features including contact syncing with social networks and Xbox integration.

But is this all too little too late? The new iPhone (4.0) is set to hit in the summer and Microsoft don’t expect any Windows 7 phones to reach consumers until the end of the year.

It’s all about the apps

I’m a big iPhone fan, but I really like the Windows 7 UI – enough to make me consider moving, but there is one thing holding me back – the apps.

And this neatly brings me to one of the other big MWC announcements; a number of the leading mobile manufacturers have teamed together to try and bring about the standardisation of mobile applications.

This seems to be a movement that is gaining momentum. The BBC today announced that it is going to be launching mobile apps for parts of its website in the next few month, but launched an attack on mobile manufacturers who are making life too hard for publishers keen to get their content on mobile devices, by forcing them to create separate versions for different operating systems.

Are apps just a stop gap?

Apple leads the way at the moment with the sheer number of apps that are available for the iPhone. And for an iPhone user, this means the temptation to move to another handset manufacturer is fairly low. Sure UIs are great, but in a world where mobile handsets are now more like mini-computers, applications really do make the difference.

But the standardisation of apps could really shake things up. And it would make a lot of sense for the consumer, if not for Apple.

Of course, standalone applications themselves could soon be a thing of the past themselves – how will HTML5 change this space? I had a good tweet-chat with Matt Hopkins on Friday evening about how HTML5 web apps could in fact overtake – take the new mobile web app for Google Buzz as an example of HTML5 at work. This would render the whole compatibility issue a moot point.

So for now, I’ll be sticking with the iPhone, but I’ve still got my eye on Microsoft et al., as the mobile landscape could soon be very different…

First, a bit of a disclosure: I’m a huge Apple fan. I love my Mac nearly as much as my iPhone and the latter, my friends and family will all tell you, is glued to my hand for most of the day.

So bearing this in mind, you can probably imagine my excitement on the 26^th January, frantically refreshing Engadget’s live blog, as I eagerly waited to see what new gift Apple would bring into the world.

The sheer volume of media coverage for the iPad was, even for Apple, quite amazing. It blew away the entire coverage of the CES trade show earlier in the month and had Nationals and tech mags alike straining for the first picture of the new tablet computer.

So why, with all this media attention and eager anticipation, was I left feeling a bit disappointed when the product launched?

The iPad is a great piece of technology and looks amazing. But there was also quite a bit missing – for example, no new OS, no flash support, no camera. Was I being too fussy? I was left feeling that the surprisingly low price point was the only silver lining.

And then I realised what the problem was: all the months of speculation and buzz had blown this device out of all proportion. I read spectators who were claiming this was the device that would ‘change computing for ever’ – quite a claim, and one that the iPad would never meet.

So was this something that Apple’s PR could have handled differently? Should the media storm before the launch have been handled more carefully to avoid this sense of disappointment?

Apple’s PR is different to many tech vendors and part of this is because of the evangelical nature of the support the company has both in the media and amongst its customer base. Using leaks and a ‘no-denial’ policy, the media storm before any announcement usually reaches fever pitch.

The day after the launch, I was asked to comment on the PR around the iPad for Utalkmarketing. I said that “in the long run this slight negativity is unlikely to have any effect on sales or their brand image.”

I still believe this to be true; the iPad will be very successful, despite its initial failings. Apple has form here. The first incarnation of the iPhone wasn’t exactly perfect. Sure, it was a great device and revolutionary in so many ways, but it didn’t have 3G support, video, or copy and paste – in fact the list of failings was quite long. But the device still sold and the later upgrades more than made up for its initial teething issues.

Therefore I have no doubt the iPad will sell, and sell well. I’m also sure that Apple will continue to encourage the hype and buzz that surrounds its future product launches. The truth is that we all love to speculate and today’s multi-channel, real-time media landscape means that canny PRs have a multitude of opportunities to build moment-by-moment suspense on behalf of clients when the right story presents itself.

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“No, I really, honestly don’t want an iPhone!” I stressed to colleagues recently. To which they all looked at me as though I’d lost my mind and launched into a tirade about all the amazing apps I’m missing out on.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like technology and I’m pretty savvy about what it can do. It’s just that I won’t use or buy it for the sake of it. For me, technology needs to serve a practical purpose – and when it does, I’m hooked.

For instance, I shop online. For everything. I simply can’t face the battle for a parking space, navigating the hoards on the high street or dealing with the self service scanners at the supermarket.

And I don’t think I’ve watched live TV for years. Instead, my trusty digibox gets busy recording lots of lovely programmes while I’m at work so I can watch whatever I want when I get home  (ok, admittedly, there’s a lot of Come Dine With Me at the moment).

VPN and remote PC access means I can work from home a few afternoons a week so I can walk the dog before it gets dark (and it was a life saver when it snowed); Skype is perfect for keeping in touch with friends who live abroad, and Facebook seems to be the only way to get hold of my brother these days.

So it’s not that I’m resisting new technologies – it’s just that I can’t think of any way that the iPhone could make my life easier – or better – than using the laptop, digital camera and other devices that I already have. Cue much gasping from the team and exclamations over what I’m missing.

Checking emails on the go! (hmm,  I drive to and from work).  Catching up with the latest news online! (sigh, what happened to buying a newspaper?)  Having the tube map at your fingertips! (they are obviously not aware of my prowess at playing Mornington Crescent).

The list went on, but I am yet to discover that ‘killer app’ which means that I simply can’t do without an iPhone (or a Palm Pre, Blackberry or iPad). When I do, I can assure you I’ll go out and buy one. But until then, I’ll be spreading the Sunday papers out across the kitchen table, relying on my trusty (paper) diary and curling up on the sofa with a good book.

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Leading analyst firm Gartner has revealed it’s IT and technology predictions for 2010 and beyond.

From social networking and green computing to mobile and marketing, the predictions are wide ranging and varied. Here are the headline findings; more detail can be found in the press release:

• By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets.
• By 2012, India-centric IT services companies will represent 20 percent of the leading cloud aggregators in the market (through cloud service offerings).
• By 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization.
• By 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.
• In 2012, 60 percent of a new PC’s total life greenhouse gas emissions will have occurred before the user first turns the machine on.
• Internet marketing will be regulated by 2015, controlling more than $250 billion in Internet marketing spending worldwide.
• By 2014, over 3 billion of the world’s adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile or Internet technology.
• By 2015, context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the Web.
• By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide.

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At times of extreme weather and travel disruption, the issue of remote working for business owners and workers alike jumps to the forefront of our minds.

GMTV are touting the stat that £600m per day is being lost by the disruption to UK business due to the snow. And research that Wildfire is promoting this week on behalf of our client Citrix GoToMyPC, highlights that while 78% of small and medium-sized business thought they were prepared for the snow, 57% have still suffered.

No one can argue that we don’t have the technology to enable remote working these days. VPNs, smartphones, Webmail, remote access software are all widely available.

So what’s the problem?

Well, it’s often largely down to the culture of the business you work for and the still present lack of trust in employees to actually be productive when bosses aren’t there to keep an eye on them. Or perhaps concerns about security and sensitive data. But until today I wouldn’t have even thought that the ISPs themselves would get in the way of effective homeworking, as the internet is the key enabler of the shift to more flexible working.

But not Sky it seems. After a lot of deliberation, I bundled all my home communications with Sky at the end of last year, and since then have been puzzled why I can’t get access to my VPN, so have struggled through with Webmail. But today I discovered that Sky maintains its service is solely for domestic use and therefore blocks all VPN ports.

WTF?!

For someone who is juggling raising a family with running a business, working from home is an absolute must, so clearly I will not be letting this matter rest. My IT guy is looking for a way round it and today I will be trialing GoToMyPC for Mac (which launches today) and hopefully getting some work done.

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So you might have already read our experts’ views on the big trends of 2009, but what about 2010? Will social media continue its spectacular rise and which consumer gadgets will get us all talking? Here’s what our panle of top journalists think will be big in 2010:

Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, the Guardian

1. Crunch time for Windows Mobile – can it survive?
2. Trend towards paid-for – an end to widespread “free” in all sorts of things

Peter Judge, Editor eWeek Europe

3. At the pocket level, Droid will fail but in a flood of Android phones a few diamonds will emerge
4. At the pan-business level, carbon accounting packages and add-ons designed to meet the CRC laws will appear – but too many companies will miss the point, use Excel and fall foul of the regulations (and yes, that’s a plug for our CRC seminar)

Sean Hannam, online editor, ERT

5. 3DTV will be the big CE buzzword – with household brands such as Sony and Panasonic planning on bringing in 3D-enabled home theatre systems and TVs. Sky has also confirmed it will be launching a 3DTV channel next year
6. Internet/wi-fi radio will go mainstream – driven by innovative products like the Pure Sensia, which combines iPhone-like touch-screen functionality with the benefits of radio, social networking sites and ‘apps’

Paul Carr, TechCrunch, Freelance

7. The first assassination of a public figure, facilitated by Twitter
8. Still no hoverboards

Chris Lake, Editor in Chief, Econsultancy

9. Goodbye acquisition, hello loyalty – I firmly believe that this past decade has been all about customer acquisition, whereas the future – for the smarter operators – will be about improving customer service, satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The recent shift towards public customer service (via social media platforms), transparency and brand management will focus minds on keeping customers happy
10. Testing, testing 1-2-3 – We’re also going to see widespread adoption of site optimisation tools, such as multivariate testing technology. The best performing websites will have teams of people who obsess over this kind of thing. Web managers who insist on making constant iterations to improve the user experience will seek out higher conversion rates, and they’ll *know* what makes conversion rates increase. No need for guesswork! Their users will tell them: all they need to do is watch

Jim Martin, Deputy Editor, Computer Shopper

11. SSD uptake – solid-state disks look set to become mainstream (particularly for laptops) in 2010, as prices fall thanks to better manufacturing efficiency. As price falls, capacity will increase – 1TB SSDs are already on the horizon
12. Cloud computing – online apps also look like they’re going to become popular. Google Docs is a great example, as the benefits for consumers are immense: no need to invest in Microsoft Office, you can access your documents and calendar from any internet-connected device, plus collaborate in real-time with others on the same documents

Sean Hargrave, Freelance

13. Apple vs Google – in the mobile world is going to be massive as a raft of Android phones hit the market and Google launches its own branded phone. The mobile net really will take off as more flat rate data packages will be offered and so smartphones and unlimited data gain traction beyond media and tech types. The question nobody dare ask is what will the consumer experience be in peak times. Will the crowded mobile networks be able to cope?
14. To pay or not to pay - 2010 will be a defining moment for the web as we see what media companies do to end this farce of giving away the content we produce for nothing. Idiots online say anyone who wants to charge doesn’t ‘get digital’, my advice to them is give away your web devving skills or give free legal advice online. Everybody thinks journalists should work for free. This is not only unfair it will just mean that sponsors will step in, if consumers aren’t paying, and people won’t be able to trust news. 2010 will see the emergence of pay walls and towards the end of the year we’ll realise it’s not the wall that’s the issue, it’s what’s behind it

Gareth Beavis, Tech Radar
15. Mobiles, especially smartphones, will get bigger – we’ve seen a couple of post 4-inch devices, and a larger number in the 3.5- to 4-inch category springing up
16. Cloud computing – we’ll likely see something on this from Google, as well as Microsoft and maybe even Apple opening up mainstream services to allow users to store content wherever and stream it on multiple devices

As another year comes to an end, we’ve asked the great and the good of tech journalism to review the year.

From netbooks and cloud computing to green IT and social media, here’s what they had to say:

[You can also read their predictions for 2010 here]

Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, the Guardian

1. Cloud computing – all over the place
2. Apple’s upward trend v Microsoft’s decline – the iPhone has become iconic and defined its sector; Microsoft has become less and less relevant to anything, though it still makes lots of money

Peter Judge, Editor eWeek Europe

3. Small level, netbooks getting too big for their boots
4. Big level, green data kit with a not so green sales pitch – bin your old servers and save money on electricity. Yes, but what about the environmental cost of the binned kit?

Sean Hannam, online editor, ERT

5. The year of the netbook – or the mini-notebook, with consumers snapping up these small, portable products that are designed for surfing the web. It is likely to be the fastest growing PC sector this year
6. iPod docks sector continued to be massive – with the iPod still being the consumer’s preferred choice of MP3 player – and the iPhone becoming more popular – the iPod docks market outperformed any other audio sector

Paul Carr, TechCrunch, Freelance

7. Apps that turn breaching our own privacy into fun game – Foursquare! Location-based Twittering!
8. People are finally paying for non-porn content – annoyingly what they’re paying for is social gaming. I mean, seriously? Farmville? Fucking hell

Chris Lake, Editor in Chief, Econsultancy

9. Increased usage of social media channels to complain about brands - it’s a lot easier to let off steam on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, compared with the pain of telephoning a customer ’service’ centre. This tells us that customer services is broken, and in many cases it is
10. User centric web strategies FTW – more and more companies are putting consumers at the very heart of their plans. It’s the most obvious no-brainer in business. We’re seeing a firm commitment to the user experience, with increased spend on internal and external usability resources. That said, many firms still need to fix the ‘beautiful basics’ on their websites, as far as usability goes

Jim Martin, Deputy Editor, Computer Shopper

11.    IPTV – BBC’s iPlayer has become massive this year, and lots of other similar services from ITV, Five and Channel 4. Even YouTube now has full-length shows to watch. The days of scheduled programming (and the concept of channels) is beginning to fade
12.    GPS everywhere – We saw just about every kind of device get satnav, from phones to netbooks. Plus, cheap standalone satnavs mean that almost everyone has a satnav in their car now

Sean Hargrave, freelance

13.    The promotion of what ‘people like me think’ alongside search engines -  I think the only rival to Google long term is links and tips through social media. Think back more than a year ago and compare your discovery online to today and you’ll notice far more clicking on links and discovering info through Facebook and Twitter, and others
14.    Sales started to become a major part of marketing – as the recession bit, companies realised it doesn’t matter how many ‘hits’ they get, it’s all about sales. Yet I’m still stunned at how few brands take the time to de-duplicate restults and stop cannibalising their customers by, for example, spraying vouchers all over the web for people to use

Gareth Beavis, Tech Radar

15.    Thinner TVs – everyone was looking to see what would be the next big thing in TVs, and making them razor thin and LED backlit has meant that the OLED revolution has become a little less interesting to a number of people
16.    Blu-ray finally won the war, and it was full steam ahead for HD content. This, coupled with Sky HD becoming more prominent, meant that hi-def is quickly moving into the mainstream, which is a great thing

I was watching this video on PocketLint recently and the words ‘work is a thing we do, not a place we go’ really struck a chord.  It nicely sums up how we work in 2009. I can work anywhere and am lucky enough to be employed by a company that not only provides the technology I need but also trusts that I am not going to sat at home watching day time TV!

But it was interesting having a chat with my parents recently – while I worked from their house in Ireland – about the whole working from home concept.  Mum and dad both in their early 60s (sorry to give away your age, mum) agreed that ‘in their day’ no one would have been given permission to work anywhere else but the office.  It just wasn’t done the thing.  And my parents both maintain that if a colleague was at home during work hours they would presume that he or she were playing a round of golf, hitting the shops or having an afternoon nap i.e. doing anything else but work.

So what’s changed?  Why does our generation not bat an eyelid at the thought of our colleagues, friends and family working from home?  I put it down to the power of the Internet.  Being online gives us the freedom to access the information we need, the people we want to speak and the service we want anywhere, anytime night or day.  So, getting the ammunition we need for work should be no different.

But that does not quite answer the question of skiving. Do our bosses trust us more today?  I doubt it, but I do think that our employers’ mindsets have changed.  They realise that we may watch a bit of This Morning while we are working from home.  But they also understand that we will happily check and respond to email at 8pm.

Generation Y, or those who have been brought up with internet, will take it a step further and demand to work from anywhere; happily working as part of a globally dispersed team, content in the knowledge that they can work from Starbucks if they want. A recent article in the Sunday Times Style magazine even hinted that the office was dead and would be replaced by a series of community hubs which would house people who work rather than people you work with.  The workplace as we know it is changing and I for one like the changes and won’t be giving up my iPhone or remote access anytime soon.

So Google Wave has launched in beta and the (tech) world has gone crazy.

I’m yet to receive an invite (hint hint), despite having signed up the day it was announced. Google suggests that more invites will be on their way soon however, so fingers crossed!

As I’ve written before, I think Google Wave will be a game changer, especially as widespread internet availability increases and smartphones become more and more prevalent.

There has been a lot of coverage about the launch and some interesting articles with differing opinions, so I thought I’d do a quick round-up of the best ones I’ve found so far.

Let me know what I’ve missed in the comments.

How Google Wave could transform journalism – LA Times

For the last two months, while we’ve been testing the Google Wave developer preview, we have been talking amongst ourselves about how this thing could change (or add to) what we do. So, here’s a list of a few wild ideas we had for using Wave.

Google Wave crashes on beach of overhype – Scobelizer

I just got my Google Wave invite. No, I’m already out, so I can’t send one to you, sorry. But this service is way overhyped and as people start to use it they will realize it brings the worst of email and IM together: unproductivity.

Geeks Try Google Wave, Have Mixed Feelings - ReadWriteWeb

Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel and Louis Gray are three tech blogger geeks that love to use new tools and all got to test Google’s new real-time communication platform Wave today. It’s possible that when the rush is over the Wave experience will seem less overwhelming, but the kinds of initial reactions these three had aren’t good.

HOW TO: Get Started with Google Wave – Mashable

So what if you’re one of the lucky ones to get an invite, or just want to understand exactly how this new tool works?

Google Wave could prove a threat to Facebook, Twitter – Computerworld

Analysts say that Google’s Wave collaboration and communication tool could find its initial success as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

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For several reasons (mainly to do with lack of time) I’m a bit late to the game with this one. And usually I’d let that go. But the launch of Google Wave is, to my mind, such a hugely important technological development that I just can’t let it rest.

If you’ve missed the coverage (and that’s not difficult as it’s still in private beta) then you wont know that last month, at its I/O developers conference, Google announced a new product – Google Wave – that will be available later this year.

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web. The central component is the ‘wave’ protocol which is best described as a mixture between email, IM and a collaboration suite like Google Docs.

It allows users to message each other in real-time (or not) and collaborate on documents. Google has also constructed a (hosted) application which will act much like Gmail does for email. But the technology itself is open source and Google is therefore actively encouraging anyone and everyone to build their own front end applications to display and use waves (the technology itself, like email, will be vendor or platform neutral however).

Confused?

The video below is the announcement and demo from the conference. It’s over an hour long but highly recommended. However if, like me, your time is precious then this detailed, but concise overview from Techcrunch should do the trick!

Google’s main challenge will be rolling this out. Email is ubiquitous. So is IM. And I don’t see this changing anytime soon. But Google Wave (like so many collaboration and social platforms) demands critical mass. Getting enough people using the technology will be vital to its ultimate success – I don’t necessarily want to be using email for some conversations and wave for others.

So there is lots to work out. And it’s hard to really evaluate the service without being able to try it. But, from what I have seen so far, this has the potential to be a real game-changer. And if anyone can do it, it’s Google!