Mark Anderson is a self-styled futurologist and a popular commentator on modern technology trends. He is reported to count Bill Gates and Michael Dell amongst the subscribers to his newsletter and his annual Predictions Dinner hosted in New York last December attracted the likes of Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Business Week, The New York Times and Le Monde.

So is this expert opinion or plain old guess work? You decide by reading what Andersen had to say about the coming twelve months. Here are his top ten predictions for 2010.

Top ten predictions

1) Platform Wars

According to Anderson, 2010 will be the year of Platform Wars, a heightening in the battle between netbooks, mobiles and emerging cloud computing standards. Netbooks are tipped to continue selling in high numbers.

2) Operating System Wars

Will 2010 be the year of operating system wars? Windows 7 battles it out with MacOS, Linux, Symbian, Android, Chrome OS, Nokia Maemo 5. Anderson predicts that the PC-centric platform of Windows 7 clears the way for other contenders in the mobile operating system market place.

3) All content goes mobile

All content becomes available online with television and movies, in particular, breaking free from their traditional business models. Programmes will soon be available to watch live on our mobile phones. For a price, of course.

4) MobileApps and Mobile Content drive MicroPayments

Anderson predicts a move from niche to mainstream payment models with payment for content to be split along age lines. He ventures that those aged 35 and above will pay, whilst those below 35 will not. (Blatant ageism, we say!)

5) The Phone vs. the PC

‘A split along two paths’ is the vision for 2010. Anderson says the Apple environment offers a fully integrated user experience with poor back-end (mail and calendar) integration. Conversely, Windows offers good back-end integration but with a poorer user experience. He says the phone is now the most interesting computer platform and feels it is driving innovation.

6) Cloud catastrophe

A significant disaster this year will limit the growth of the cloud by heightening security concerns and impacting on business trust.

7) A chasm opens between Consumer and Enterprise

Apple, Google and most Asian hardware companies will stay focused on consumers whilst Dell, IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft remain on the side of enterprise, governments and administration. HP will straddle both. Until 2010, all the talk was about unifying consumer and enterprise. Now, it's about their division.

8) Microsoft loses in its consumer play

With the exception of gaming, 2010 may spell Game Over for Microsoft in the consumer market. This will pave the way for the most robust and exciting change artists to make their name.

9) News media will shift to the subscription model

For those who survive in the online news media market, there will be a move, in whole or in part, back to traditional business models. (Maybe along the lines suggested in number 4).

10) Remote data meets real life

Anderson predicts that connecting remote data to people and things in real-time situation will lead to a series of exciting new devices and applications. Some of the possibilities he cites include recipe-driven shopping and self-guided tours by mobile phone.