2006 Predictions, Part II: Entrepreneurial Vision

This is Part II of my 2006 Predictions series, with the spotlight falling on entrepreneurs this time. I asked some of Florida's top entrepreneurs for their predictions and got some pretty bold ones. Here's what they said:

For starters, Jeff Gallino, the guy who owns more ebooks than anyone I know and CEO of speech analytics leader Callminer (Inflexion company), has his head in video and audio for 2006:

1) A flurry of spending on HDTV over the past year will lead to a revolution in auxiliary products to "mobile"ize the recorded video content for ipod video, pc, and other devices causing a huge roar from tv/mpaa over piracy. [it's coming, fast]
2) Anti-surveillance technology will see a surge as more people realize they don't want their conversations, emails, chats listened to and used for spam or other nefarious reasons.
3) Netflix will cut a deal with NBC, CBS, ABC, Comedy Central to offer to burn recent and current season TV shows on DVD for rental -- one show per DVD.

Next up, Isaias Sudit, CEO of LBS enabler LOC-AID, can't get his head out of his bread-and-butter location, location, location:

1) LBS will be the biggest wireless enabler for 2006.
2) Wi-Fi Location Services becomes a major player for local content delivery (Cisco to be major player).
3) Wal-Mart and McDonalds will launch the first SMS/LBS-based marketing campaigns. [can I SMS-order/pay for pickup at closest drive thru -- sweet!]

Yet another Southy (e.g. SoFL), Craig Pisaris-Henderson, CEO of Miva and former Florida E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, showed the wisdom of a guy who has braved the public tech company route and has the bruises to show it.

1) Online marketing ad dollars, fueled by keyword-based pay-per-click ads, migrate towards behaviorally targeted ads.
2) Traditional publishing and media companies restrict the use of their content by others online and begin to take online market share.
3) The burgeoning population of skilled "baby boomers" moving to Florida will ignite corporate and venture investments that both cater to and employ this segment of the state's population. [I like how you're thinking]

Leave it to a guy who knows blogs (and many other content-types), Peter Pezaris, CEO of Multiply.com, to come up with some attention-getters:

1) Bill Gates' identity will be stolen and linked to a multi-million dollar fraud.
2) News Corp will develop a portal which becomes a viable alternative to Yahoo and Google, with Disney following close behind.
3) In an effort to boost sagging market share, Google will redesign their home page, completely dropping the clean interface in favor of a sea of links. [yes, it is starting www.google.com/ig]
4) The year will see a major revolution in PC hardware: not CPU, bus or memory, but in interfaces such as keyboards and mice. Logitech's enterprise value triples.
5) ISPs will finally win the war against spammers, and email will be useful again. (Perhaps this is just wishful thinking)

Finally, I return to complete Rich Swier's top 10 for 2006, for some final doozies:

6) The first "Internet-based News Channel" will launch using podcasts, video uploads from "people on the street" as reporters. [do it Rich, I like it]
7) Cell companies launch the first cell phone with a new battery that lasts over a month.
8) There will be another major merger of the top cellular companies, reducing the number of major carriers.
9) The government will come close to first tax on internet services -- sparked by growing number of VoIP users.
10) Dan won't ask me to post 2007 predictions... [you should be so lucky]

Again, thanks to all contributors and I'll be kind with any end-of-2006 scorecards...enjoy and comment as you like.... especially if you've got some life-science predictions (none of the life science entrepreneurs I contacted had a clue what was coming in 2006 -- scary)...