Make predictions about anything is a tricky business. It is often fraught with problems compounded by two factors: too many variables and too many people.
Making predictions in the world of technology is almost as hard as it gets. You see a trend, a fad or fashion a new, jump on it, extrapolate, then go and get it all completely wrong.
As an example, on the eve of the 20th century, it was predicted that the passenger air balloon – for the first time by the likes of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin – mass consumption would become the pre-eminent means of public transport . In fact, it would be so popular by the 1980s, people who have their own personal air balloon as their main mode of transportation.
