The 10 Most Important Technology Developments of 2008

Before we break into 2009 and consider what the future may offer, it is worthwhile looking back to review the year that passed. So I’ll do that right now, in real time.

2008 was a signature year of change - and not just in politics and economics. The changes in technology and the technology market were many and various, and some were profound. Here are the ones that I suspect were the most important.

1. The GPU and the CPU: The GPU (graphics processing unit) is in the process of usurping the CPU on client computers and access devices (but not servers where a GPU has no relevance). This is bringing Intel into direct competition with Nvidia (NVDA). (see What is a GPU and Why is it Important?)
   Why important: This is causing a genuine divergence in the computer market between PCs and other “client access devices” and server computers. In all probability, they will no longer follow parallel paths. Additionally, this is shaking up the chip market, with NVIDIA threatening Intel’s (INTC) hegemony.
2. The evolution of the CPU, by other means: There are other disruptive developments occurring in chip technology. They include HP’s (HPQ) recent announcement of the memristor (a new on-chip component that will change the architecture of the cpu itself) and advances in using graphine, which promises chips that run 100x faster than now. Both show sufficient promise to suggest they could have an early impact on the industry.
   Why important: The CPU is the engine that pulls everything else. If the cpu changes in a significant way, then everything else is affected sooner or later.
3. Flash Memory gets faster and cheaper. Flash memory is falling in price fast (it used to be 100x the cost of disk a few years ago, now it’s 8x and falling) and the speed differential is increasing. Flash speeds overtook disk speeds recently.
   Why important: Flash takes less space, consumes less power and has no moving parts. The age of the spinning disk is coming to an end - and yet most of the applications we run are engineered for spinning disk. So it is likely that this will provoke a consequential revolution in database software.
   Note: USB is now updated to USB 3.0, which will be 10x faster USB 2.0. So thumb drives are here to stay, probably in a big way.
4. Apple (AAPL) triumphant. In 2008 the Apple Mac ceased to be a niche platform. Its commercial success was boosted by the remarkable success of the iPhone. In my last posting on PC market share (see Apple Market Share: The Sound of Breaking Windows) I noted that, without even trying, Apple is now making in-roads into the business market on the desktop.
   Why important: The Windows monopoly has been broken and is unlikely to be re-established. The market has grown beyond the point of Apple being just a niche vendor and the market is diversifying.
   Note also: The appearance and popularity of netbooks (sub-notebooks). They are also undermining the Windows (MSFT) monopoly by forcing the price of Windows down.
5. The iPhone revolution. While we’re on the subject of Apple, we need to hail the success of the App store. It is transforming the mobile market - and all Apple has done is to implement it’s end-to-end iTunes music model to sell software. It has had the effect of turning the iPhone into (optionally) a games device.
   Why important: It’s not just the fact that it’s good for Apple’s business, although it is - notice how quickly Google (GOOG) (with Android) and RIM (RIMM) followed suit. What it demonstrates clearly is that the mobile carriers are ultimately in deep trouble. They have no value to add beyond temporary and (in the long term) trivial capabilities like SMS. They own the railroad track but not the trains and they don’t even have a monopoly on the railroad track.
6. Google Chrome. Google entered the browser business by releasing Google Chrome, thus challenging the dominance of Mozilla (FireFox), Microsoft (IE) and the aspiring Apple (Safari).
   Why important: It was important because Chrome wasn’t just another browser. Google Chrome treats each individual tab as a separate session (if one fails, the others don’t suddenly fail). It may be accidental, but this is an acknowledgment that the browser is “the desktop of the cloud.” The gradual realization of this and the merging of cloud desktop with client desktop will change computing. (For more on this read Why Google Chrome Will Dominate.)
   Note also: The emergence of new cloud-facing development products such as Microsoft SilverLight and Adobe (ADBE) Air.
7. Social networks blossom. Social networks continued to hit the news in 2008 as Twitter sprouted up from almost nowhere and Facebook grew like bamboo in the spring. If anything is going to challenge Google, and it could be that nothing actually will, then it is likely to emerge from the social networking space - Facebook being the current possible contender. (See Ten Reasons Why Twitter Rocks for information on Twitter)
   Why important: It’s the social networks that are actually introducing the applications that telecomms companies should have been building and introducing. They are eating the telco’s lunch. The telecom industry spent over a century building infrastructure, but never devoted much time to building applications. Now it has completely lost control of the communications applications market.
   Note also: The rise of developer ecosystems around successful social networks. A developer ecosystem can be a very valuable thing - go ask Microsoft.
8. The emergence powerful network switches. I’m referring to the introduction of hugely powerful switches by both Brocade (BRCD) and Cisco (CSCO), which have the potential to turn networks into manageable virtual resource spaces. (read The Server Vendors v Cisco: Is This A New Technology War? for more details)
   Why important: This could impact the IT industry in many ways. One possibility is that it will undermine the strategic position of hardware vendors IBM, HP, DELL at al. However technically it makes it far more feasible to treat a corporate network as a single resource space that is deployed (i.e. provisioned with resources) dynamically.
9. The cloud rises. In 2008, “the cloud” went mainstream with a large number of software vendors adding the “extra sales channel” of the cloud to their marketing efforts. What began with SalesForce.com (CRM) and Google (with some contribution from Oracle (ORCL)) is now becoming a genuinely new channel.
   Why important: As most people have noted, cloud computing is destined to prosper in the recession. (For more detail read Everything as a Service: The Growth of Cloud Computing) for more information.
10. All virtualization all the time. Virtualization is the direct outcome of decades of Moore’s Law and it is becoming ubiquitous. The server, the desktop, the laptop, both the OS and apps and even the client personalization layer is getting virtualized, and so is the network. (Click on virtualization links for links to several articles on virtualization.)
    Why important: This is extremely disruptive in many ways; to software licensing models, to vendor stability, to data center management and to data center costs. The opportunity exists to cut costs and optimize the use of computer resources, but it will not be achieved easily. The IT network is gradually becoming one very large virtual mainframe - which is fine, but right now it has no management software.

Comments

[jmmx:]

Several points here. First: CPU vs GPU.

I have a Masters in CS including courses in architecture. This does not mean that I know everything, so I will say up front "Perhaps I am missing something." However! My understanding is as follows.

By Definition a GPU is an engine for performing specific mathematical operation in parallel. By definition, it does NOT have the capacity to perform all the general purpose operations that are done by a CPU. General purpose programs are compiled to run on a CPU.

THEREFORE - if you want to run a program, then you must have a CPU in the computer.

Of course - as has been noted - One can easily put an x86 (or whatever) core on a GPU chip. This would no longer be a GPU but rather an integrated chip. One can also put a GPU on a CPU chip (there is nothing magical about the operations that an NVidia GPU performs) This would also be an integrated chip.

So I do not see the big fuss here. That the GPU is taking over some of the math processing (a la OpenCL), this is an interesting development.

2008 Dec 31 04:02 AM

[jmmx:]

Second - The cloud

Good point here. But you left out one important player - Apple's MobileMe.

Oh yes, it did get off to a truly horrible start, but there it is and I assume it is growing. Not only does it have most of the important parts of the cloud and the virtualization experience, but it comes from a company that excels precisely in integration of the user experience.

It has one other very important advantage over Google, Yahoo, and many others. It does not rely on advertising. (It also is free of the fear folks have of Big Brother Google collecting all this info on you.)

Yes - you have to pay for it, but it is a fairly nominal price (except for additional disk space), and then you are free of all the pesky advertisements. It would be easy for Apple to add in other apps, they already make them.

Personally - I think they would do well to cut the price in half. After all, it is one big subtle advert for Apple itself.

2008 Dec 31 04:16 AM

[Moon Kil Woong:]

Great article. Technology advances no matter what the economy is. I look forward to a bunch of fast efficient flash memory replacing my hard drives for my operating partition in the future.

Can I add a few least important developments to the mix:

Vista: This unwieldy, annoying, and largely useless OS will be aborted by it's monopolistic creator in 2009 with lots of fanfare. Everyone hates it even though Microsoft bribed every tech editor to write how great it is and how "rich" the features it has. "Rich" is the word for Microsoft who fed this overpriced dud to the world for hefty premiums and the editors who got to keep their plush jobs advertising for their sponsors.

Firewire: Jobs leaves and what do you know, Apple stops dropping all the great stuff out of their notebooks. We love Firewire. Please keep it in your notebooks even if it costs a bit more. If Apple drops firewire it will go by the wayside as a great technology that never made it due to cheap cost cutters. This is a least important technology that should not be least important.

Dell's Cloud Computing: Not only is this confusing much like Windows was in the past but where is it? What a great plan, take a phrase everyone uses, get a bunch of lawyers to copyright it so no one uses it and then produce nothing. Bravo... No wonder Dell is in the crapper. Wake up and make something decent! Your customer service and quality ratings are going into the toilet. And you make Alienware into garbageware the second you bought it. I can tell you what's in the clouds. Your head.

Risk Control Software: With government guarantees for everything, bonuses for fabricating your earnings and losses, off balance sheet accounting, and machinations even Machavelli would blanche at, you can pretty much throw this useless concept out the window. Apparently, it just gets in the way of booking profits, executive bonuses, and causes economic headache.

Desktop computing: Say goodbye to it. Who needs it besides network and tech administrators anymore. The notebook is lightweight, portable, and powerful enough except when you want a giant screen to play WoW on. Although desktops is not a new development you can can any new desktop developments from now on. This includes the touch activated table Surface. I would call surface an unimportant 2008 technology but it's not even worth the mention. Hello Bill, we aren't as rich or as bored as you are.

2008 Dec 31 04:19 AM

[Nick Gogerty:]

the singularity progresses...

seriously, this is a myopic view of "technology". biotechnology and materials sciences "nanotech" among others made great progress. The title should be information technology.

2008 Dec 31 09:35 AM

[griot:]

I enjoyed your article very much. I've been following tech stocks for many years. I found your piece enlightening. After reading, I downloaded Google Chrome and made it my default browser.

2008 Dec 31 10:18 AM

[Ricard:]

Nice article. It serves as a friendly reminder that in tech, nothing is sacred, and nothing is safe.

1) AMD bought ATI. I don't think anti-trust regulators would have any problem with INTC buying NVDA. The tail doesn't wag the dog.

2) Last I read, INTC also had some innovative idea to take Moore's law well in to the 21st century:

"Intel Cites Advance in Using Silicon in Data Products; Claim Is Challenged"
online.wsj.com/article...

6) I'm downloading Chrome as I write this. :)

8) Thanks for the CSCO link.

Cheers, Happy new year!

Jan 01 04:08 PM

[Ricard:]

Nice article. It serves as a friendly reminder that in tech, nothing is sacred, and nothing is safe.

1) AMD bought ATI. I don't think anti-trust regulators would have any problem with INTC buying NVDA. The tail doesn't wag the dog.

2) Last I read, INTC also had some innovative idea to take Moore's law well in to the 21st century:

"Intel Cites Advance in Using Silicon in Data Products; Claim Is Challenged"
online.wsj.com/article...

6) I'm downloading Chrome as I write this. :)

8) Thanks for the CSCO link.

Cheers, Happy new year!

Jan 01 04:08 PM

[perfectdanc...:]

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Jan 21 03:36 PM