2013, is this the year we've been waiting for?

Almost every year a technology journalist somewhere will claim that year 'x' will be the year everything changes and very rarely does that ever actually happen. The last time I can really think it did was 2007 when smartphones made it to the consumer market thanks mainly to Apple and the success of the iPhone, which is probably the only praise I’m likely to give Apple within the realm of this blog, but as this post will discuss, anything is possible.

Since then, smartphones have changed not only what type of device we carry in our pocket, but what we actually use those devices for. No longer are they a tool for making calls with the odd game of Snake on a long train journey, now they are the all-in-one product we use for everything from office work to console quality gaming... with the odd phone call on a long train journey.

Apart from the level of applications and peripherals adding further functionality to these devices growing at an incredible rate, not much else has really changed in the mobile world. They get more powerful, faster or have a better camera with each new generation and the applications get even crazier (There is a coffee machine now that you can control with your phone so the coffee or tea you want is all made and ready for you by the time you've made it to the kitchen!). The enhancements seem to stop right there though, and although I love nothing more than to see these devices get faster or be able to do almost everything for me in one product, not much lately has been really revolutionary.

I am far from being a journalist, but this is the year that I think things might see a real shake up, at least in the world of smartphones. This year RIM will launch BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8 will see a much larger product range and there will be at least two new players with both Firefox and Ubuntu debuting their new mobile operating systems. Designed from scratch and with today’s market in mind, these new players could stand a real chance to completely change the market as it is today. It may seem like a crazy idea given the market share and dominance the likes of Android and iPhone have in this space, but then just a few short years ago no one ever thought anything could take over Myspace.

I personally think this year is a perfect playing ground for new players to take over the show. At the moment we're seeing a lot of long term iPhone fans moving to Android and vice versa just because consumers are looking for something new. If the end products from Firefox or Ubuntu can bring on their promises, it could be really easy for them to see fairly quick adoption.

The Ubuntu case is the one I’m particularly interested in as it promises to bring something I believe could be that 'revolutionary' change the mobile world could do with in order to once again change the way we live. That something is having both the mobile and desktop variants of Ubuntu built into one product, and one device. Today smartphones have almost caught up with our desktops and laptops in terms of processor power and graphics performance, we already have a computer in our pockets, so why aren't we using them like computers? This is the exact thinking the Ubuntu team are trying to bring to reality, a smartphone, with a mobile version of the operating system, then when plugged into an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, switches to the desktop operating system. Just think of that simplicity for a second. There would be no need to sync your documents and files with a cloud service or transfer them with a cable to another device, your files are already on your computer because your phone IS the computer.

In the last few years smartphone manufacturers have been coming up with ways to make sure all your devices talk to one another and keep all your files in sync and work with each other, but the Ubuntu team have sparked an idea that I think could change the way we use smart phones as much as the original iPhone changed the way we used mobile phones altogether. Why have a phone, a tablet and a desktop or laptop when you could have one device capable of being all three?

With the Ubuntu desktop operating system gaining ever more consumer adoption, thanks largely to computer manufacturers like HP releasing desktops and laptops pre-loaded with Ubuntu instead of Windows I think it has a real chance to become a real game changer. Then again, like many people each and every new tech year, I could also be wrong.