3th : Apple

3th : Apple

Apple is perhaps the most secretive company. It has been a policy to them not to announce and keep their upcoming product a secret. That is why their rival, Microsoft, are having a big trouble tracking their activities.

In the 2010, nothing can be expected from Apple. One thing for sure is the newest released of their product, the IPad. People view IPad as an IPod Touch on steroid. The design is basically like an iPhone but with bigger screen.

The IPad has a powerful processor and graphic subsystem, comes with a capable OS than the iPhone runs, 10.6inch multitouch screen and hace wireless Internet access through Wi-Fi and 3G.

Other than that, all Apple products will be focusing on Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 CPUs. Laptops will be getting thinner and might take on slight design changes and probably see battery life improvements. The Mac Pro desktops will be needing upgrades but the iMac line is already set till late 2010.

Not much updates can be seen on Apple but time will tell.

4th : Microsoft

4th: Microsoft

When Microsoft is being talked, the first thing that comes to our attention will be the Operating System (OS). The Windows has been on the field for almost 3 decades since they first announced a graphical interface OS. Windows OS is the most used OS today if compared to the likes of Apple and Linux.

The newest OS, Windows 7 has been released to the market, but it is heavily promoted during early 2010, and it is still going on. The software has been seen acceptable in the market by its users whom expected these functions on its predecessor, Windows Vista. It has been announced that this OS will be taking advantage of the multitouch, environment sensors, quick booting and better battery life. Not only that, Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) was announced that it will loads faster compared to the others on Web application like Facebook , Youtube and other heavy websites.

The Microsoft Office 2007 successor will be the Microsoft Office 2010. Slight changes in the interface and enhancement in the usability is being focused. Many functions available in its predecessor will still be in used. Not much of a change in the Office.

The one thing that the office offers is the Office Web Apps. It offers users an online platform for sharing and editing, which could keep them from trying out the Google Docs. Users are expect to see a version of this office on the Windows Mobile phones.

Other heavy project like Project Natal will provide gamers on the XBox 360 a new way to control and interact with the consoles. It detects the human movement and it will affect the game play. New consoles for XBox is not expected this year, thus Project Natal will keep the XBox 360 alive this year.

5th : Intel

5th : Intel

After going through the 6th place, Nvidia, lets take a look at the 5th place, Intel. 2009 is a great year for Intel. They secured their place as the world best CPU producer. There were virtually no competition at the high end of desktop market at all. From Core 2 series to Quad Core series, Intel took at big leap into the core i-Series CPU.

The year 2010 would be a great year for Intel. the Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs will take over their older siblings, the Core 2s, slowly but will dominates them phases by phases. However, there are more up to join the i5 and i7, which are the i3 and i9.

The most unique about the i3 is that it will be the first CPU featured with a GPU. This bundled feature will be for costomers to save cost and also paves the way for Intel's CPU-GPU hybrid in the future, making themselves as one of the competitor of Nvidia and ATI.

The i9, which is also known as Gultown will utilize the HyperThreading technology, in a result of hving six cores (12 threads). The i9 would be the best processor at performance slot, but in return, it will need more power supply and also produces more heat, which is not a problem for customer that has a good air ventilation and also the sufficient high PSU. Plus, the motherboards for these CPUs will support SATA 3 interfaces and also USB 3.0 for speedy peripherals.

On the laptop platform, high performances machines is intended for mobile CPUs. The core i-series mobile CPUs will include quad-core, eight-threaded chips as well as ultra-low voltage consumption ones. Core will adjust their speed and power on the fly depending on the work load they're facing.

On the server chips hand, the Nehalem-EX ,with the EX stands for expandable, and Westmere-EP, with the EP stands for efficient performance, architectures carry Core i-series designs into the server space with potential for multi-CPU configurations which would scale to immense processing capabilities. EX chips with 8 cores and HyperThreading each could be combined in 8 way systems with a staggering 128 simultaneous threads running.

Last but not least, the Atom CPUs will evolve with Pine Trail generation. With the Pine Trail, it will replace the current set which are usually found on netbooks. These will also combine the CPU, graphics and memory controller into a single die, and should therefore find homes in even smaller devices with longer battery lives.

My Comment:
Intel will certainly wipe the floor clean this year. With no competitors up to challenge them, Intel will dominate the CPU industry. Without a doubt, Intel is one of the most powerful player in the Information Technology field. Thank You Intel!