Here’s my final predictions for the year – I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Is there anything I haven’t covered or that you’d like a fight about 
17. Java Portals
Despite the reports of big media jumping on the Java Portal bandwagon, I think their strange silence will continue as they find just how hard this is to implement, with a user benefit of questionable improvement over WAP.
18. WAP
Grows even more. 1.3 billion page impressions a month (just the UK) is just the tip of the iceberg.
19. Child Tracking
People will work out that this doesn’t really do what it’s meant to ie protect kids in a meaningful way. Abductors know that they need to ditch the kid’s phone, so it only really gives parents and kids a very false sense of security.
A further problem is the kids themselves. If you’re out on a hot date, while you’re meant to be studying with your best girlfriend, guess where your phone’s going to be, if you know it’s being tracked?
In fact, this using the phone as an alibi, also means that you can’t use your phone for the very reason many parents give them out in the first place – to be used in an emergency.
So, sooner or later, parents are going to realise that being able to track a child’s phone doesn’t mean they’re either safe, or that the phone is where the child is. So what’s the point?
Isn’t it far better to try to rely on the old ways of doing things, for once? Talk to your kids. Make sure they understand the dangers of the world. And keep talking to them.
Technology isn’t always the answer. Back in the 60′s, the NASA spent millions developing a pen that worked in zero gravity for their astronauts. The Russians used pencils.
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