The new year is here, and I'm sure over the last couple of weeks you have seen several people posting their 2008 tech predictions. Not to be left out, I figured I should do my own list and get your opinions as well, and at the end of the year we can see how good we are.

Apple: I don't think many can argue that the iPhone was the top gadget of 2007, so what will 2008 bring for it? I think we will see a minor hardware update, possibly announced at Macworld this month, with the probable addition of 3G and very slight visual changes. There is not going to be a major revision until around the 2 year mark, as that is when the AT&T contracts will be up for renewal.

On the software side, Apple will release the SDK as promised and there will be some truly awesome 3rd party apps made available without the need to hack the iPhone. More news from Macworld will be the announcement of the iTunes rental store, which will launch with great hype, but will fall flat in just a few months.

Microsoft: 2007 was an interesting year for Microsoft, we seen the retail launch of Vista along with a heavy dose of criticism about it. SP1 will be released in a couple of months, and it won't help the criticism much, and it just might add to it. Some have predicted we will see the first betas of "Windows 7" this year, although I doubt this will happen. We will see some updates to Windows Home Server which has been horribly marketed, and hopefully will gain more attention as WHS is a great product.

Towards the end of the year, consumers will start hearing about the next Xbox edition. There won't be much as far as hardware or specifications, but I think Microsoft is going to start the hype early. Also on the Microsoft schedule will be Internet Explorer 8 which has gotten itself in the news lately. Not sure if this will make it out this year, but I think we will see some public previews made available.

Mobile Industry: 2008 will be the year of the iPhone clones. There have been a few attempts already, and most, if not all will not get any attention other than being recognized as cheap knock-offs of the iPhone. There will be some fantastic new phones released this year, but the iPhone will still be the most talked about. Smartphones in general will continue to rise in popularity, and 2008 will be another year where we will see wireless access expand at a rapid rate.

Web 2.0: We have seen a lot of "Web 2.0" this year. Sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Twiiter, etc. have exploded in popularity, and 2008 will be no different. 2008 will see quite a few acquisitions of some of these companies, and we will see some fade away, but a few new ones will appear to take their place. I was trying to think of some good ideas for sites like these, but came up blank so I'd like to hear what kind of "2.0" sites we will see this year.

Desktop Customization: It just wouldn't be right if I didn't speak a bit about desktop skinning for 2008. I'm going to write more about this later, but I believe 2008 is going to take off especially in the Windows Vista area. Stardock Deskscapes 2.0 will bring .dreams (animated wallpapers) to a much wider audience, and in turn we will see some great .dreams being created.

In the next couple of months, we are going to see many more skins being created, especially in the WindowBlinds area. SkinStudio 6 has made this process much easier, and with the tutorials being written more people will try their hand out at skinning. I'm not going to say too much else in this area, but I can assure you that 2008 will be a great year for skinning.

Well that is my top 5 list, and now it's your turn. Let me know your predictions, and what you think of mine either by leaving a comment or writing your own blog.