Top tech trends in 2009

Top tech trends in 2009

NDTV Gadgets' bio on Twitter reads, "There's no moksh in tech. You always want to come back for an upgrade."

Technology is ever evolving and the pace of its evolution just keeps on accelerating. Every year new trends in technology emerge; some stay on to evolve further, while others just fizzle out.

The year 2009 was no different. We take a look back at the technology trends of the year that created the maximum buzz and changed our lives, for the better

Top tech trends in 2009

Twitter: Though the world's most popular microblogging service started back in August 2006, it was in 2009 that Twitter gained most space in the public consciousness.

Twitter is growing at a flabbergasting pace; even if we cancel out the number of Twitter quitters it still outstrips everything else in the online world. Now even astronauts are tweeting

Top tech trends in 2009

In India Twitter's popularity grew manifold thanks to celebrities and their 140-character responses to the query "What's happening?"

Though the popularity of Twitter in India is nowhere close to that in countries like the US, UK or Canada, but Indians are amongst the top 10 nationalities most active on the micro-blogging service

Top tech trends in 2009

The OS just got better: It was a good year for operating systems will all major players going for a major upgrade in 2009.

For most desktop and laptop computers, it was the year of Windows 7. Microsoft finally managed to undo much of the damage caused by Windows 7's predecessor Windows Vista. Windows XP users who just refused to 'upgrade' to Vista are now making the move towards a newer and better OS

Top tech trends in 2009

In the world of Apple it was the big cat Mac OS X Snow Leopard out to bite a share from Windows' pie. The last major release was back in October 2007 in the form of Mac OS X Leopard

Top tech trends in 2009

Top tech trends in 2009

The mobile phone OS was also full of activity. The world's most popular mobile operating system Symbian went open source and Nokia announced the Maemo software platform.

Version 3.0 of the iPhone OS was released for general users in June 2009. BlackBerry also annonced the availability of the BlackBerry OS 5.0. With Windows Mobile 7 getting delayed, Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5. Palm reestablished its presence in the mobile phone market with the Palm Pre smartphone running on its new Palm webOS

Top tech trends in 2009

Google's Android version 2.0 was released in October 2009 and predictions are that Android will emerge as the world's second most popular smartphone platform by 2012. Samsung on its part has stepped up its challenge to Google's Android with its Bada operating system.

And there's Google's Chrome OS on the horizon

Top tech trends in 2009

Netbooks: When netbooks or ultra-portable laptops first made their presence, there were skeptics abound. But netbook sales during the economic downturn showed computer manufacturers where the money was and everyone toed the netbook line.

Even players like Sony, who had earlier poked fun at netbooks in their ads, came up with their own versions in 2009. The next year will see more power and features being packed into these cozy devices

Top tech trends in 2009

The surge of the touchscreen: Touchscreen devices have been around for quite a while but the release of the Apple iPhone was the catalyst for the technology and 2009 has been the year when touchscreen devices have started to become the norm, rather than just a fancy feature.

Just a few years ago, a camera in a mobile phone was considered a luxury. Today, we take it as a part of the standard features. In the next couple of years, the same will hold true for the touchscreen in mobiles

Top tech trends in 2009

The touch support built into Microsoft's Windows 7 OS has been a big boost in making touchscreen mainstream. Though touch-enabled PCs are yet to top the sales graphs, the future is definitely in touch.

The touch revolution has expanded its reach much beyond the mobile phones and PCs, making cameras, personal media players, gaming consoles and even printers more finger-friendly

Top tech trends in 2009

High speed mobile internet: In this age of broadband, accessing the Internet on the go was a big pain in India. GPRS or even EDGE couldn't deliver anywhere close to satisfactory speeds. 2009 gave us Indians the freedom to unshackle from the wires and move beyond the Wi-Fi range to watch smooth YouTube videos in HD

Top tech trends in 2009

The launch of 3G (still priced on the higher side for heavy internet usage) and HSPDA mobile broadband services are fast changing the way Indians browse the Internet. Tata Indicom has also launched Tata Photon TV that allows users to watch live TV on desktops or laptops, even while on the road.

Though the pricing is still remains a deterrent, more competition will rationalise the prices further.

WiMax is already here via BSNL.

If the 3G and WiMax auctions take place on schedule and the services are rolled out fast, we might just have a high-speed 2010

Top tech trends in 2009

It's all about apps: Mobile phones are fast becoming like PCs and the user is no longer restricted to what the manufacturer has on offer. They can just install something that fits their requirements

Top tech trends in 2009

The success of Apple's App Store (launched in July 2008) has led to other players joining the fray. Google opened the Android Market in October 2008 and priced application support came in February 2009

Top tech trends in 2009

Nokia's Ovi Store launched worldwide in May 2009, followed by Windows Marketplace for Mobile in October. The BlackBerry App World arrived in March

Top tech trends in 2009

The number of available apps and also the number of downloads (alongwith the revenue generated) for most of the app stores are just getting better and better. With more people opting for smartphones, the light over the world of apps is shining bright

Top tech trends in 2009

There's more to search: The biggest happening in the world of search in 2009 was when Microsoft decided to put its sickly Live Search on steroids and gave it a new name - Bing. There was quite a buzz and things got more exciting when Microsoft announced that it is planning to join hands with Yahoo to take on the search behemoth Google

Top tech trends in 2009

Google's dominance didn't make it complacent and it came up with quite a few new features including, local flavour for Google Suggest, colour filters in image search, search options panel, a super-sized search box, social search, music search, Google Goggles and real-time search.

All these (and a little more) made it easier for us to find precisely what we were looking for. It'll get even easier in 2010

Top tech trends in 2009

E-book readers: There's an e-book reader war brewing out there. Though Amazon's Kindle is still the leader, others are gearing up to give Kindle a run for its money.

Amazon released Kindle 2 in February 2009, followed by Kindle DX in May. Kindle also went international with the Kindle 2 International Version in over 100 countries (including India) in October

Top tech trends in 2009

While Sony has been in the e-book reader market for quite a few years, it has rolled up its sleeves with the launch of the Reader PRS-900 "Daily Edition" in August 2009 to take on Amazon Kindle DX.

Barnes & Noble released nook in November, iRiver came up with its Story and Samsung showed off Papyrus and there were many many more. To add to it all there are rumours abound about Apple coming up with its own e-book reader