Intel leaders forecast trends for 2012

The company's representatives view next year as one of accelerated transition to intelligent connected systems, which will continue to demand more performance. Mark Bohr, senior fellow at Intel, believes 2012 will be the year of 22nm Tri-Gate transistors being introduced in various product segments, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency. "Manufacturing is about to go 2.0," He said. "Startup innovation begins to kick off outside of the Unites States as accelerators spawn and creativity exceeds opportunities for copycat success. The number of 'inclusive' and 'green' tech startups more than doubles as the Silicon Valley culture reaches economies with different challenges." Ton Steenman, vice president and general manager of Intel's Intelligent Systems Group, said: "The internet continues to be 'it' – with more and more ways to access it. As such, the mobile internet will grow at a dizzying pace. Delivering experiences from device to the cloud is the key to building a long lasting relationship between consumers and the devices they choose to use in their daily lives." Steenman added that companies need to 'break through the fog' of the economic uncertainty. He noted: "Expectations are high for Windows 8 as it will help bridge the millions of legacy apps that we all love and need, with new apps and touch experiences." Doug Davis, Intel vice president, Netbook and Tablet Group, believes surveillance crisis of people's private cloud files by a major company will make the headlines. "Preference based shopping is applied to online and storefront shops," he said. "Schools start to use tablets and eBooks instead of paper books. There is an increase of smartphone and mobile internet usage. Cloud will become more popular. Self serve smart shops will increase. Cloud hackers cause serious damage and are the first major terrorist attack in the virtual world, which will raise awareness for better safety." Ultrabooks Renée James, Intel's senior vice president and general manager, Software and Services Group, said that 2012 will represent the beginning of another significant transformational moment for the personal computing experience - Ultrabooks. "Just as Intel led the industry through the last major shift in computing with the introduction of Intel Centrino Mobile Technology that truly unwired computing, Ultrabook devices will increasingly deliver a no compromise, most complete and satisfying experience in ultra responsive, ultra thin and secure designs." Tom Kilroy, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Sales and Marketing Group, also believes Ultrabooks will bring a new low cost form factor to everyone. "Everyone will be able to have this new device," he stated. "In the past, devices like this have been expensive and maybe unreachable for most people, but now we'll be able to put an Ultrabook in everybody's hands and it's a natural form factor. It's a kind of form factor we just want to have because it's nice and lightweight. It's a comfortable form factor and they look good – they're sexy." The company's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, pictured, concluded: "We're at a very significant point in time. It's a time when technology is no longer the limiting factor. What limits us today is really our own imagination."