Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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THE BLEEDING EDGE By Dave McClure Tech Predictions for 2013 J udging from the media coverage, technology hardly existed at all in 2012. Instead, the nation sat enthralled, week after week, by billions of dollars in political ads, four debates and nearly-endless campaign speeches. But it wasn't as slow a tech year as the political wrangling might portend. In fact, between a rising stock market and a declining jobs market, we managed to see tech news that was both good and bad. Perhaps the best way to define technology in 2012 is that it was a balance of extremes. On the flashy end of the business, Apple products drove the company to the top of the stock markets; Blackberry died a grisly death; and Microsoſt pushed out yet another Windows operating system. On the more subdued end of the industry, companies continued to see solid profits; cyber-security became more critical; and soſtware got notably beter – with smaller code, better user interfaces and tighter integration. So what's in store for 2013? Here are our predictions: B IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CAR. Tese are the tech wars for dominance, now comfortably setled into familiar trenches. Apple dominant, Google holding its own, with an occasional assault by Micro- soft and its allies. Much like the trenches of World War I and the Maginot Line. The only way for anyone to advance is to open a new front, and that's slowly happening inside the family automobile. Forget radios and GPS systems. Voice- command systems will be the first batle, and this will be a free-for-all in hands-free computing, with the bat- tleground being the center console of your automobile. C AOL WILL MAKE A COMEBACK. For Mr. McClure is a consultant and widely published writer on technology issues. He can be contacted at dave.mcclure@ cpapracticeadvisor.com a company that is barely two decades old, AOL has been many things to many people. A pioneer in online services. Te top of the publishing pyramid. A company without an identity. An email service struggling to survive. But ever so slowly, the company has rebuilt itself around its content and its communities, and in 2013 14 December 2012 t www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com will begin to re-emerge as a serious contender to some of the market leaders. That AOL mail account someday may mark you as a savvy Internet user once again. D THE DESKTOP PC WON'T BE DEAD. If I had a dollar for every tech pundit who had predicted the death of the PC computer, I would be ret ired by now. Te desktop PC is not dead, it's just evolving to take the middle ground between the smartphone/ tablet markets at one end and the high-def television and video markets at the other. Bigger screens, touch screens, more USB ports and beter integration with devices at both ends of the spectrum. The PC will no longer be the top of the tech pyramid, but will begin to emerge as the bridging device – and thus still indispensable. E TOUCH SCREENS ON THE PC WILL BE A BUST. Sure, touch screens are amazing and cool and the wave of the future. Until you realize that the sc re ens a re more fragile than other types of screen. And until you realize that every tough on the screen means a greasy fingerprint that requires cleaning to see the screen properly. Smartphone users will tell you that touch screens are already a nuisance in that market. Imagine having to clean a surface twenty times that size every few minutes. Remember, touch screen monitors have been around for many years now, and have already failed to capture the atention of users in any significant way. F TAX TECHNOLOGY WILL RESURGE AS A MAJOR PART OF ACCOUNTING. Particu- larly tax soſtware and systems. Forget about tax simplification – all of the indicators point to a tax system that is more difficult to keep pace with, tax returns that are more complicated, and tax compliance measures that require more careful atention. Tis means that tax soſtware will become more sophisticated with each revi- sion, in the batle to keep current. Tis will drive additional customers to tax professionals – many of whom have done their own taxes in previous years. And will drive the development of newer and beter technologies the manage taxes. G WINDOWS 8 WILL BE…MODER- ATELY SUCCESSFUL. Microsoſt has gone a long way to make this latest operating system its best ever, and early impressions are that they have succeeded. But they have also attempted to make a radical change in our perceptions of what an operating system is and should be. In an effort to develop a single system for all sizes of screens, Microsoſt has upped the ante in the batle for the desktop. But it has also introduced a lot of change very rap- idly, and is facing some resistance even now because of it. Stay with Windows 7, anyone? H SYSTEM SECURITY WILL BEGIN TO EVOLVE. Let's face it, the user-name-and-pass- word routine has failed dismally when it comes to Tax technology will resurge as a major part of accounting The desktop PC won't be dead It's all about the car. Windows 8 will be… moderately successful Touch Screens on the PC will be a bust System security will begin to evolve AOL will make a comeback