7 Trends For The Next Year In Tech

Last week was Computex, the annual trade show where most Asian electronics companies announce their hardware lineup for the coming year. It's an important event for the industry and for enthusiasts, but the show can be a hard to follow--the laptop-heavy announcements can get a little dry, and the show falls on the same days as the much-flashier E3.
Fortunately, unless memorizing Ultrabook model numbers is your hobby, you don't really need to read every press release from the show. We've distilled Computex 2012 down to its 7 major themes. Read on for a brief primer on the next year of consumer hardware.

Ultrabooks

Ultrabooks were the star of the show, and just about everyone had something to show off that was thin, aluminum-clad and powered by Ivy Bridge. Some of the standouts were the first Vaio-branded netbook, Toshiba's ultra-wide Sattelite U, and the now-with-more-metal version of the Acer Aspire Ultra M3.

Tablets

Tablets! Tablets everywhere! All of the major exhibitors at Computex were showing off Windows 8 tablets (some Intel-based, some ARM), and Acer made waves with the Tegra 3-powered A110 Iconia Tab. It's not the prettiest tablet around, but it's set to sell for just $200, which could make the Android slate a game-changer.

Convertibles

On top of the regular tablets, there plenty of convertible notebooks on display at Computex. The most interesting of the bunch was the Taichi hybrid laptop from Asus, which features two screens for seamless transitioning from laptop to tablet configuration. Most of the other convertibles featured a laptop body with a break-away tablet, like the Tablet 600.

Windows 8

If there was a clear winner at Computex this year, it was Microsoft. Though we still can't say how the OS will fare with consumers, Computex showed that Windows 8 has the full support of hardware vendors. With plenty of Windows 8 notebooks, tablets, convertibles and all-in-ones on display, it's clear where Asus, Acer and co are placing their bets.

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is finally breaking out, with plenty of hardware on display that featured either end of a Thunderbolt connector. Asus had a great-looking Thunderbolt display, and Drobo and Belkin were among companies that announced Thunderbolt peripherals.

802.11ac

The new wireless standard also had it's first major showing at Computex this year, with Qualcomm showing off 802.11ac-capable chipsets, and Asus demoing an 802.11ac-enabled router and laptop.

The Cloud

The biggest press conference at the show was Asus', and they used the very start of it to promote their new cloud service, called "Asus Open Cloud Computing." Details about the exact features that will be a part of this cloud solution are few, but the cloud seems important to the vision of more portable gadgets, drawing on more-efficient hardware.