The high points for Microsoft this year were the ruling in the antitrust case, the launch of the Pocket PC platform and the launch of their new .Net strategy. While the first one, at least in the initial round went against the company, it has been able to get significant success with the second one. On the .Net front, it’s still early days and one needs to wait and see what evolves.

In the coming year, we expect to hear more on the .Net front, with the company realigning almost all their products around the .Net initiative. The fact that quite a lot of advertising money is being spent on this front will ensure that we get to hear enough about what’s happening and more.

The X-box—Microsoft’s gaming console—the device with which the company hopes to take on the likes of Sony and Sega is due for launch. Gaming is a market that they have been eyeing seriously for some time now, having launched a range of software titles and peripheral devices. So we can expect a lot of noise on that front from Microsoft next year, if the X-box arrives on schedule.

The long promised new version of Windows for the desktop, based on NT (now 2000) code base is also due and could bring more robustness to the desktop. On the other side, Paul Allen, cofounder along with Bill Gates is due to step down from the board of the company next year. Allen had not had an operational role in the company for a long time now. So, the impact of his stepping down from the board is likely to be minimal.

Nokia

While cellphone usage grew by leaps and bounds this year, it has not been a kind year for cellphone manufacturers. Most of them struggled to stay in the black. Nokia was one notable exception, consolidating its position in a crowded market.

New models came with monotonous regularity, and the focus with recent ones was on building more functionality, particularly PDA-like functionality, into cellphones.

The next year should see 3G-based devices from all cellphone manufacturers, and going by current trends, it’s only natural to expect Nokia to have a significant say in how things evolve.

Sun

The last big revolution from Sun was Java. Recently, they bought over Star division, the company that makes StarOffice, the free alternative to Microsoft Word. Simultaneously, they also announced plans to have a portal called StarPortal, an ASP service around the productivity suite. But nothing has been heard of the effort since.

In short, the company and the world is waiting for the next big revolution from its stables since Java.

Samsung

Samsung has proved to be a really nimble player in the market, not only in embracing newer technology areas, but also in carving out significant marketshare. Samsung is today known more for its products that its technology.

The coming years should see Samsung transform from being just a product leader to becoming technology leader. One particularly hot area seems to be in mobile communication devices. Their recent deal with Microsoft for developing such technology is a good pointer in this direction.

Apple

Apple had ridden to a new high on the success of the iMac. This year, however, Apple was not able to repeat the success of the iMac with the G4 Cube. Dual-processor Macs made their debut, but they have to wait for OS X to be able to use the second processor! After a long wait, we finally had the beta release of OS X (read as OS ten), but it’s yet not clear whether the final release will have the same impact and fan following as some of the more popular products from Apple.

IBM

IBM is one of the few IT companies to have a finger in almost every pie. Major initiatives for IBM this year were on the marketing rather than on the technology front. These include a major Linux push and a repositioning, or rather a renaming, of their complete server range.

Corel

Corel was originally known for its graphics software. Then it bought over Perfect Office, and a slew of other products, but could not achieve much with them. Then it started off a division to produce hardware for Linux, and even developed their own distribution. Then they gave up plans for both, and after much turmoil have signed up an agreement with Microsoft to develop software around their .Net initiative. One interesting sidelight of this is the option for Corel to develop the .Net stuff for Linux. Whether it will actually happen, the coming year will tell us.

SCO

Technically, the company called SCO doesn’t exist anymore. It has renamed itself as Tarantella after selling off its operating systems and services divisions to Caldera, the Linux major. Tarantella is the name of the thin-client software that SCO had developed. Just before the sale of the operating systems they had announced major plans for Linux, and had even developed the Linux Kernel Personality, a software that allowed UnixWare, their Unix operating system to run applications meant for Linux, without having to recompile them.

Krishna Kumar