10 Tech Trends to Look For in 2006

Music phones to get bigger: 2005 was the year of the camera phone in the U.S., but in 2006 the hottest phones will play music. Nokia(NOK Quote) and Sony Ericsson are finally rolling out serious music phones, and I expect other phonemakers to follow.

The carriers don't seem particularly interested in carrying music phones until they can cut deals to make money from song downloading, and that is probably why nobody picked up the stellar Sony W800i. However, the emergence of mobile P2P could convince them to accept that nobody will pay $2.50 for a song. They should be content to capture money from increased data transmission usage as well as higher phone prices. (Quick side note: As a RealMoney reader told me, there is a huge demand for an incredibly simple phone for those of us who are less comfortable with new technology.)

The Apple phone: By the end of 2006, I bet that Apple will put out an MP3-enabled cell phone. I am a Nokia bull, but Apple makes me more nervous than Motorola(MOT Quote), Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson combined. Apple commands premium pricing on everything it sells, and a mobile phone would be no exception. As for the phone itself, it will look cool and be nothing special, but it will say Apple on it -- that's all I need to know.

Dell will embrace AMD: AMD (AMD Quote) doesn't have the capacity to support Dell (DELL Quote) as a customer just yet, but I believe that Dell's difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that it doesn't use AMD chips in its PCs; this eliminates a lot of customers, especially on the high end. In laptops, Intel's (INTC Quote) Centrino technology kicks AMD's butt, but if AMD can close that gap, it is game over for Intel, because Dell will have no choice. Forget the lawsuit -- AMD is doing well enough in the marketplace that it doesn't need to sue.