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Companies and products to keep an eye on in 2008

What are the companies and products that analysts and enthusiasts should be keeping an eye on in 2008? Here's what I'm going to be keeping my eyes on ...
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor

What are the companies and products that analysts and enthusiasts should be keeping an eye on in 2008?  Here's what I'm going to be keeping my eyes on:

Apple

Apple has proved to be very influential throughout 2007 and has released products that will be shaping the tech industry for years to come.  During 2007 look out for an updated iPhone and further capacity revamps of the iPod series.  It'll also be interesting to see if Apple will finally enter the UMPC/tablet PC market - my guess is that it will.

Microsoft

What effect will Vista SP1/Office 2007 SP1/XP SP3 have on the software landscape?  Will businesses finally embrace Vista and Office 2007 or will the SP1 waiting game turn into a Windows 7 waiting game?

AMD/ATi

2007 hasn't been a good year for AMD, but things could well change in 2008.  While Spider/Phenom so far haven't enjoyed much much in the way of positive reviews, partly because samples have been plagued by a performance bugs.  However, things could be different in 2008.  With the performance bug closed AMD could be closer to catching up with Intel than we'd first thought, and the Spider platform holds a lot of potential when it comes to marketing.  If AMD plays its cards right, 2008 could see the company making a turnaround.

Intel

Just because Intel is enjoying a comfortable lead over AMD doesn't mean that the company can afford to stand still next year.  There's work to be done, especially on the 45nm front.  What I'm not expecting next year is for prices to fall in the dramatic way that they did this year. 

Nintendo

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the insanely popular Wii next year.  Will the console get a revamp or will Nintendo stick with what works for another year?

Thoughts?

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