Mobile Personalization

Industry observer James A. Martin, the author of Traveler 2.0, a mobile technology blog for travelers, no doubt nails it when he says as far as 2010 in mobile computing went, “the year in our collective rear-view mirror was all about the tablet.”

Meaning the Apple's (News - Alert) iPad, of course. Based on that Martin says 2011 will be all about the tablet as well -- “but there will be plenty of other small business mobile trends to follow, too.”

He offers some of his predictions, here’s a sampling:

Tablet mania will accelerate. The iPad's raging success in 2010 spurred the launch of notable, competitive tablets from Samsung (News - Alert) (the Galaxy Tab), Dell (Streak, Inspiron Duo) and others. As sure as the Pope wears red loafers, there will be more tablets in 2011. RIM is joining the fray with a BlackBerry (News - Alert) PlayBook tablet, expected in late February, and Cisco's Cius tablet is due in March. In addition, likely but thus far unannounced contenders include an updated iPad with front-facing camera and a Palm WebOS tablet from HP, presumably to be announced in early January.

Laptops will look more like netbooks. And netbooks will continue to become nearly as powerful as laptops. We're likely to see more sophisticated netbooks that resemble laptops and laptops that are kissing cousins to netbooks. Apple, always the trendsetter, scored a hit with its 11-inch MacBook Air.

Smartphones will get smarter. Android, Apple's iOS, Windows Phone 7, and other smartphones will continue to become more advanced. Example: The new Google (News - Alert) Nexus S is one of the first smartphones to support Near-Field Communication (NFC), which lets the phone communicate wirelessly with other NFC objects within 4 inches.

4G network availability will continue to grow. Though still nascent, 4G cellular network access will become more widely available in 2011. You'll need a new phone to take advantage of it, natch.