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Now that 2008 is only a couple of days away is the right time to write about the developments I would like to see. I am not in favour of votes for the best of each category of 2007. We have all bought and used stuff this last year, we have also already done our choices for Christmas, so what’s the point? After all these things are so much down to personal taste that it is hard to announce a single product or site as the best in its category and clearly above everything else. So many CPU cycles have been devoted to Facebook vs MySpace & iPhone vs Nokia N95 type stories that I think a bit more of that would be overkill. So summarising thoughts from previous posts and by also adding some new ones, here is the things that I would love to see happening in 2008:

• Good, reliable, fast internet access, both wired and wireless. The wired part is getting better briskly. But for wireless still a lot has to be done…
• Some compatibility between social networks. What is happening now is crazy and exhausting. Separate accounts, separate contacts, separate everything for each one of them. When for example Yahoo and MSN made their messengers compatible -even with limited inter-functionality- it was a great relief for me. Social networks admittedly have very different philosophies and carry enormous data quantities, but if something is not done soon they will soon only exist for people that have a lot of time to waste…
• A convincing HD standard for consumer videocameras. Manufacturers have been anxious to get in this market to match the HD TVs that are now commonplace. In this rushed effort they created HD formats that are very difficult to edit, have lossy compression, are incompatible with each other, offer no convincing storage solutions and in general suck. MiniDV was and still is successful because it addressed all these issues in an elegant way to create a platform that is practical and safe for consumers to trust.
• Complete move to HD 1080p. Everybody knew that 720p is a joke and it is no secret that 1080i is an intermediate solution as everything will soon settle at 1080p. TVs, videocameras, everything. So what’s the point of buying an overpriced 1080i videocamera or similar player when I know that very very soon it is going to be obsolete? This move I expect to be definitely implemented in 2008.
• Sensibly priced smartphones. Yes they have GPS and promise to prepare Italian espresso. But I do not want to pay a price -or to be precise penalty- that is enough to get me a nice laptop. Hopefully, in 2008 we will see lower pricing for the entry and middle categories, something that could possible prepare the ground for cheaper smartphones. Come on Samsung and HTC, maybe you can work your magic here. Some companies sell non-3G devices for an arm and a leg so that they can sell us more of the same -this time with 3G :-) - in 2008…
• More sales of Olympus, Sony & Pentax DSLRs. Nikon and especially Cannon are still in a position to control the pace of feature introduction and earn from systems developed with optimum profitability and not customer convenience in mind. The absence of integrated stabilisation in Canon and Nikon bodies is a huge missing feature in my opinion. I am going to stick to my 400D with kit lens for now, that way it is easy to switch to any other system that satisfies my appetite.
• Complete removal of EIDE, PS2 ports and all unnecessary stuff from PCs. Backwards compatibility is a nice thing but time to move on guys.
• Stalemate for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. These two formats have brought so much turmoil and politics to the market that they do not deserve success. As a consumer I refuse to switch to any of the two. I have all my favourite films on DVD and can always rent to watch the new ones. I will stick to DVD upscaling as long as it takes for a single universally accepted format to emerge. I do not enjoy wasting my hard earned cash and will maybe rediscover the joy of going to the cinema…
• Removal of DRM from music and film purchases online. Music is on a good way for this. For movies I do not expect it to happen in a hundred years…
• Proliferation of digital projection cinemas. Some countries have achieved significant progress on this and new projection technologies are steadily eating away the throne of traditional methods. Then again, some other countries are still struggling with SD digital TV… Even a single digital projection theater in each country would make me feel optimistic for 2008!

Some of the above might sound too optimistic, but hey, do not forget that as buyers we have enormous power and we do not realise it! Of course I do not expect everything to happen, but blogs and forums are great ways to express your wishes and criticism. Keep submitting ideas and being active!