Tech Predictions - which is most likely?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an interesting article this morning, looking at the prognosticating skills of Bill Gates on the future of technology, and how accurate he's been.
They then list four more predictions he's made:
Quote:
On the future of media: "Reading is going to go completely online. ... Today, for people who read newspapers and magazines, even the most avid PC user probably still does quite a bit of reading on print. As the device moves down in size and simplicity, that will change, and so somewhere in the next five-year period we'll hit that transition point, and things will be even more dramatic than they are today."
On Internet Protocol Television: "The end-user experience and the creativity, the new content that will emerge using the capabilities of this environment will be so much dramatically better that broadcast TV will not be competitive. And in this environment, the ads will be targeted, not just targeted to the neighborhood level, but targeted to the viewer."
On online business listings: "The Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. ... These things always take time, but Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero -- near zero -- over the next five years."
On communications: "We don't see the desk phone existing as a separate device in the future. Between what's going on with mobile phones and PC peripherals, and the richness of telephony being on the Internet and connecting up not just voice but also screen sharing, video, software-driven richness in those communications interactions, the phone is going to be the PC; the PC is going to be the phone."
Which do you think is most likely, and why? (And in what timeframe, if you care to take a stab?)