Mobile is not just a city in Alabma

The mobile advertising game is going to expand rapidly. This year is already off to a bang with big with the Verizon iPhone which we are sure to see millions of new iPhone users over the next few years. Mobile is expanding on other fronts as well as this year is going to be the year of the tablet. Expect to see Android tablets taking over the shelves at major retailers; the market is going to be similar to the TV game last year with big words such as “dual core processing” and “1080 DPI” enticing consumers into making hasty buying decisions. On another note I look forward to seeing “two is better than one” iPhone commercials during the Super Bowl that is going to be a big sign that Apple is serious about the new carrier and can truck on with the loss of Steve Job but furthermore I look forward to seeing the mobile display ad networks explode this year.

Clouds you won’t run from

RackSpace Clouds is going to do damage to Amazon S3 this year. Amazon sent a letter last month alerting its cloud customers that they will no longer receive service if Illinois moves to Tax Internet Sales. We have not seen such correspondence from RackSpace but RackSpace’s higher price tag may mean they will not mind taking a loss on the backend, especially if it can grab a market of businesses not willing to leave Illinois who don’t need Amazon. RackSpace also acquired Cloudkick at the end of 2010 which was one of several acquisitions aimed at a multi-front attack to take on Amazon. CloudKick provides powerful server management tools but furthermore is working on technologies to allow for automated server clustering which means instant scalability as this is going to revolutionize how the world does business and furthermore expand the profit margins for ad delivery networks by automatically adjusting the cost of hosting on an hourly basis. No longer will it take weeks to provision servers and require human assessments and analytics instead you are looking at the ability to scale a network up and down in minutes.

All Eyes on Facebook

For Zuckerberg and Facebook 2010 was a big year featuring Zuckerberg’s headshot on the cover of Time magazine and The Social Network winning several awards. Furthermore near the end of 2010 Facebook continued to find ways to remain private, receiving nearly $1.5bn in investment capital through Goldman Sachs (-__-), but at this point they are sure to pass 500 shareholders and thus this will be the year that news of the Facebook IPO will be dominating headlines across the globe. As Facebook continues to find ways to remain a private company the government is going to start paying closer attention and mounting pressure will surely force the IPO process to begin, especially if Zuckerberg’s headshot continues to haunt the checkout lines at supermarkets across the country.