The NEW Tech Boom
By Taryn Cooper, at 5:48 pm on December 21st, 2009Inevitably with the end of the decade near we’re going to hear about Top Ten lists ranging from television shows to albums and now with technology events, according to this post from Tech Republic. No doubt, technology drove much of the economy over the past ten years, and it is far from bottoming out at this point.
At the end of the year 2000, we saw the tech bubble about to burst, and it’s almost literally come full-circle in this year. Possibly the biggest the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same story of 2009 was that AOL went public, spinning-off from Time Warner officially earlier this month.
One of the most intriguing stories in tech-media is the advent of social networking sites. I would love to see the statistics on it, but I am sure there is a high percentage of folks using MySpace, Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis, showing just how much technology has evolved in the past 10 years. In fact, an article came out today on Twitter, and how they are in-the-black since it’s 2006 inaugural year. Remember how long it took tech-retail stalwart Amazon.com to return a profit in the early part of the decade?
Google has also done its part to change the face of technology as well, after going public in 2004. They’ve been incredibly acquisitive, buying such “hot” technology properties as YouTube and AdMob. Except for today, when Google almost announced a deal where they would acquire customer-ratings service Yelp.com, however the deal reportedly fell through at the last minute.
Ten years ago, no one had ever heard of “smart phones,” let alone owned one. Mostly anyone who uses a cellular phone has some kind of “smart phone” ability, mostly made by Research in Motion or Apple. Motorola emerged as the Phoenix out of the ashes with its new Droid product this year, making the smart phone choices numerous.
At the end of 2000, websites were shutting down and the “old economy” was thumbing their collective noses at the idea of the “new economy.” What we’ve seen however in the last ten years is that it’s not only resistant, it has evolved and looks like it is here to stay. Most of us should be interested to see what is going to happen in the next ten years.
