2012 may be over but I’m still going to follow three stories from last year all this year.
First big story is the response of Apple to the Mac Flashback Trojan last summer. Apple was taking way too long to update Java for their users and then denied for several days there was a problem. Have they changed their security thinking in time to protect mac users in 2013? Recently Apple hired notable security consultant Kristin Paget . Will she be able to change the Apple corporate culture? Stay tuned.
Second story to follow is the unending saga of Canada’s antispam act first legislated in 2010. This has been going on longer than the Twilight movie saga and hopefully the last part with lawyers and Industry Canada bureaucrats spewing paper at each other will end by the fall (see this update from CBC). We’ll see if the law has enough teeth in it to stop spamming or if it will turn out to be as lame as the do not call legislation. Keep your fingers crossed and your spam filter high until the fall.
The last story I’m going to watch closely this year is the impact of Windows 8 on the tablet and smartphone market. No one expects the operating system to make much of dent corporately given the success and stability of Windows 7 but Microsoft’s success or failure for Windows 8 in the quickly growing tablet and smartphone market could well dictate the future of the company. First there is the Microsoft investment in building their own tablet to compete with their OEM partners (like Dell, HP, Samsung). If they drop the pricing on the Surface tablet it could really hurt the companies that sell the most copies of Windows and Office for Microsoft. Secondly, can Microsoft grab enough market share from Apple and Google or will it slowly go the way of Palm and Blackberry? It will be interesting to see their sales by the end of June.
