Mobile phones
This year will undoubtedly be another big one for mobile phones. The mobile has become an electronic Trojan horse with all sorts of applications hiding inside (over 30 at the last count) waiting to be triggered when usage dictates. As ownership spreads, we will see widespread use of phones as cameras in 2004 (though the main use will not necessarily be sending snaps to friends). Why buy a disposable camera - which still outsell others - or even a low end digital model when your phone will do it for you?
As the year goes on, more models will be able to receive and transmit video clips - and it is possible that third generation phones (a flop so far) will gain acceptance as they shrink in weight and price - though two-way video chat has a long way to go before reaching critical mass.
Mobiles that can receive television will appear in Asian markets this year though technical factors will prevent their early adoption here, but GPS - enabling the phone to know exactly where it is thanks to satellite positioning - may appear later in the year as cost and miniaturisation make it possible.
Meanwhile an increasing number of phones are coming configured with Java software that will facilitate an explosion not only of mobile games (see article by Keith Stuart below) but also other uses (and not just early-driving applications like porn and gaming). And it won't be long before phones will receive signals from radio frequency identification chips.
Victor Keegan
ID chips
Could this be the year of chips with everything? No, this is not the arrival of some post-Atkins diet fad, but the tiny RFID chips so controversially implanted in Gillette razor boxes and supermarket DVDs last year.
The tiny chips simply store information, and broadcast over the air when prompted. And they can be implanted in pretty much anything.
When supermarkets started experimenting last year, they were intended to prevent shoplifting and track stock around warehouses. But the chips caused an outcry because they could just as easily be used to follow products, and shoppers, after they had left the store.
This year, we're unlikely to see retailers frightened off quite so easily. RFID's progress will be quiet and - by the chips' nature - hard to spot, but the technology is likely to prove just too useful to be ignored. Only teething troubles with the technology and a consumer backlash - if it happens - stand in the way of widespread adoption of the technology.
Why? Take supermarkets, desperate to squeeze every last wasted penny out their systems. They will use them to trace goods through the supply chain, prevent theft, and control stock levels. And we could even start to see more public applications for them too. Want to check the history of that piece of organic beef? Swipe the package in front of the reader in your supermarket, and hey presto: get its history, from field to freezer.
Neil McIntosh
Disposable gadgets
The future is rubbish. All right, so it's a throwaway line, but that's the point: my prediction for the next big thing of 2004 is disposable gadgets. While we are used to our digital cameras, mobile phones, and MP3 players costing hundreds of pounds, next year will see the introduction of use once and throw away devices, costing a tenner a go.
Cameras are the obvious place to start. The disposable cameras you might have messed around with during your office Christmas party are about the only place that old fashioned film is still holding on. Not for long: two American chains, Walgreens and Ritz Camera are selling digital cameras, with printing and a CD-Rom of the images, for $10. This year expect them to become smaller and even cheaper - just in time to save the high street developers from going the way of the buggy whip.
While you are out and about with your disposable camera, you'll probably want to call your friends to gloat. Hop-on.com's disposable prepaid mobile phone is launching any week now and will offer 60 minutes of talk time before you chuck it.
Both of those gadgets actually exist - which is more than can be said for the third disposable in the pipeline this new year. Cheap, disposable MP3 players look like one good alternative for the beleagured music industry. Rumours have it that Apple is about to announce a cut-price iPod, which probably only goes to show one thing: this year, as ever, Apple rumours will be the truly big thing.
Ben Hammersley
Wireless music
For the past few years Bluetooth has seemed like a technology in search of a killer application. Well, next year it is likely to find it, as manufacturers cut the cord on personal music players and deliver wireless Bluetooth headsets.
No longer will listeners have cables dangling round their necks and pockets bulging with players. With Bluetooth, users wave goodbye to wires and can leave their players in their bag. Intriguingly, listeners will also be able to share their music with other device-owners in the 10 metre area.
There are a few drawbacks. The players aren't going to be cheap and Bluetooth connections will also drain the player's batteries. Yet Philips has already promised that the next generation of its MP3 jukebox, the HDD100, will feature Bluetooth, while Creative is rumoured to have been experimenting with a technology from a company called Infinite Range. Don't rule out Sony, too, for the company - which has a wide range of Bluetooth-endowed products - is set to launch in the personal jukebox market and will need a USP to take on its rivals.
However the first personal audio player to feature Bluetooth is likely to be the Apple iPod. iPod vendor XtremeMac is promising to deliver a Bluetooth add-on early next year that uses Infinite Range's technology and circuit boards. We have no idea on price, or whether the gadget will be available in the UK. Still, we can't wait for it to arrive.
Ashley Norris
Mobile games
The next generation of mobile phone games will take advantage of bigger screens, smarter processors and improved Java functionality to expand the possibilities of the medium. We can therefore look forward to greater tactical depth: Jamdat has the impossibly cute Lemonade Tycoon out on Java phones in January - it's a management sim where you guide a fizzy pop business from front yard stall to global operation, and was massive in the US last year. In spring, the same company has Neverwinter Nights, an ambitious RPG that should allow players to download new objects and locations from the internet. But there's some good old-school action too. Digital Bridges' conversion of the classic arcade shooter Metal Slug is due out in February, the same month as the latest Splinter Cell platformer, Pandora Tomorrow, from Gameloft. We're also hoping that recent mobile conversions of Ridge Racer and Resident Evil (both in luscious 3D) will make their way over from Japan.
However, multiplayer mobile gaming is the most exciting prospect this year - both via Bluetooth for close-proximity face-offs and over GPRS networks. Nokia has two multiplayer N-Gage titles on the way, Operation Shadow a futuristic death match shooter, and the much-anticipated Path to Glory, a second world war battle strategy title that may accommodate up to 16 players. You can battle with friends, conquer their army or beat them at pool - the perfect way to end heated arguments.
Keith Stuart
