It’s 2010 … aren’t we supposed to have a Russian spaceship on its way to Jupiter to bring back the Discovery which was lost in 2001?  No?  Oh well, lets take a look at what might actually happen in the coming year with a bit more realism then, shall we?

The iPhone App Store Will Pass 300,000 Apps

The App Store passed 100,000 this year, but with the growing number of success stories, the possibility of the iSlate/Apple Tablet running apps, 300,000 is probably a conservative guess of how many will be in the store by Dec. 31st, 2010.  The question then is will Apple actually finally make the store usable?

As I have harped on endlessly, the store is so badly organized that no one can find anything with any sort of ease.  If Apple doesn’t get its act together, people are going to stop downloading apps just out of frustration.  Sub-categories are going to be a must, but by golly Apple best get on this and soon if they want to keep the customers they do have.

And, yes, I do believe the iSlate/Apple Tablet is coming, and, yes, I do believe it will be able to run iPhone/iPod Touch applications, so who knows what will happen to the market with this new device in the mix.  Who knows how this will change the app landscape, but it is sure to have a major impact.

Android Is Going To Get Its Freak On

There is no question that the Nexus One is going to change things in the mobile space, and one of the biggest changes will be how much more it brings the Android operating system into the public consciousness.

While there have been very well advertised phones that use the android OS, it hasn’t been overwhelmingly clear that is what is powering the device.  (i.e. the Droid)  So, here we have a new phone that will be released by Google itself.  This phone is going to be plastered all over the Internet, in television commercials, commented on by technology pundits and it will be pretty much inescapable.  And, at long last, it will be made clear to the masses just what Android is and who it is made by.

There is no denying that the Google brand name carries a lot of weight behind it with the mass population, so slapping the Google name on an "official" phone will only make it that much more desirable … now, will it just carry the rest of the Android phones along with it?

Google Will Continue To Consume The World

Speaking of the Big G … they will continue to acquire company after company.  Some of these purchases will make us happy, others will not.

What will these purchases be?  Your guess is as good as mine, because, lets face it, did anyone really predict them going after AdMob, Yelp and DocVerse in such quick succession?  The movements of Google are fairly unpredictable, but with the war chest of funds it controls, it really can go after whatever it chooses to.  They won’t be successful with all of them, just as they weren’t with Yelp, but that won’t stop them from trying to buy up more and more companies.

It would appear to me that Google is taking the tactic that it is easier to buy up the technologies it wants than to build them in-house at this point, and then tweak what they end up with to their liking.  (GrandCentral turning into Google Voice as an example)

This is a broad prediction, I know, but with the seeming randomness with which Google jumps around in their purchases, I’m not even going to try to guess what they are going after next.  Okay, maybe just one guess … I’m seeing a national chain of chicken restaurants …

Twitter Makes A Profit, But Without A Mention of Advertising

Lets face it, Twitter is going to make a profit, and soon, but it is going to be without running advertising on the site.

Although Twitter probably could have made a fortune just from running some Google AdSense on its site from the early days, but for whatever reason, it opted not to.  Their loss, but it may have ended up working out for the best in the long run as they continue to have an untarnished image, although it does leave many of us puzzled as to how they will ever make money.

I think the key is all in their data.  As we saw earlier this year, when Twitter sold access to their firehose to Google and Bing, people got all excited about the prospects of searching all of that raw data.  What did Twitter have to do to make a few million?  Open up an access point to their data … wooo … such hard work.

With the addition of business accounts due at any time, and the ability to sell data to just about anyone under the sun, it would be difficult for Twitter not to finally turn a profit.

As for those who think someone will buy it, I say keep dreaming.  I don’t think anyone involved in this company has even the slightest of desires to sell at this time.  A stock offering?  Maybe, but I would say that is more likely n 2011 than in 2010.

Randomness

• Facebook will make some changes everyone complains about, but then immediately go back to tending their farms or fighting other mafia lords.
• The moment Apple finishes announcing a new product, the rumors will begin for the next iteration of that product.
• E-readers, e-readers, e-readers … people will not shut up about them.
• Somebody will call something "a -blank- killer", the rest of us will immediately laugh at them for still using that saying.

In short, I expect a lot more of the same, but I think it’s because I think 2010 is going to be more of a year of tweaking for a lot of companies as opposed to innovating.  There have been so many advancements as of late, it is time to make sure all of those work as promised.  (psst, most don’t right now no matter how much you may think they do)