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What comes after client-server computing? Is is the cloud (dominated by Google?) or is it the network (dominated by Facebook)? These two companies' battle is no longer with Microsoft (who wisely has taken a stake in the latter) but among themselves. Despite its innovativeness and clout, Google hasn't been able to replicate Facebook's success. Now it is using acquisitions to strenghten its position. 

What will the dominant design of next-generation cars be? Renault probably is the most daring automaker, with its decision to bypass hybrids and go straight to full-electric. The business model is changing, and they are partnering with Project Better Place so that people will use batteries on a pay-per-use base.

Another post on "the car of the future". Radically new architecture (fuel cells, electric wheels, ultracapacitors, etc.) and business model based on microfactories and open source IP. Will it be the dominant design of the future?

What will the future of personal computing be? After the era of the PC, what kind of devices will emerge as dominant designs?

Another take on e-book readers. We definitely are in the fluid phase of innovation, with a flurry of competing alternatives coming out, sales growing, price slowly decreasing (but still far from the level acceptable for mass diffusion)... but absolutely no agreement on dominant design. Will it be black-and-white, or must we wait for color? Will it be dedicated readers or tablet PCs?

After the "digital revolution" is a dominant design now established in digital photography? Apparently yes. Or maybe not, if a few of the innovations discussed in this article will actually be introduced to the market.

Interesting perspective on one of the (possibly) disruptive innovations of the coming decade: e-paper. Some players are wondering about the time it will take to truly disrupt traditional books and, most of all, on what will the dominant design for products based on e-ink.

2010 seems to be a key year in the paradigm shift from traditional to future (electric?) vehicles. Even if the sales figures are still likely to be low for the next years, most carmakers are committing substantial investment in the new "dominant design". However, the competitive landscape will probably be shaped by new entrants and by startups, that still have to emerge above the horizon

Cloud computing is quickly becoming the dominant design for IT systems and could do the same to games consoles. This is quite striking, given that the trajectory followed by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft has up to now been the opposite, with huge computing power distributed in users' living rooms, instead of concentrating it in providers' data centers

The field of navigation devices is interesting, because it is focused on product-services, which makes it difficult to apply the usual concept of "dominant design", and also because the business model can by quite tricky. This is especially true when a pureplay like TomTom must confront itself with competitors who have a much wider range of services and who can easily subsidize free navigation apps through its other businesses, such as Nokia and Google. In any case, TomTom made a smart move in 2007 by acquiring a critical and potentially monopolistic supplier of mapping data such as TeleAtlas.

An interesting comment on the future of reading and publishing, and on the dominant design of the devices that will allow this revolution

What is the perfect "personal device"? In the quest for a dominant design, now Motoral is looking for a TV tablet. Will it find acceptance in the market? This is probably a matter of market segmentation: "older" TV addicts having more money to spend will probably find it interesting. But younger people, raised on youtube and facebook might find it useless...

Technology sometimes leads to interesting hybrids. Tiltrotors are an interesting mixture between airplanes and helicopters... but frightfully expensive. Yet, while they certainly cannot be considered to be dominant designs, they seem to make sense in market niches

Are 3D movies going to become the "dominant design" for the industry and supplant 2D? Or will the two technologies co-exist, with directors, producers and audiences preferring one or the other depending on the movie? A question still un-answered, where technical features intermingle with consumer preferences that are hard to fathom. Companies making investment decisions on this technology may find it difficult to make rational choices. 

Actual usage of electric cars is still a big unknown. Will "range anxiety" be an issue? Where and when will people recharge their vehicles? These uncertainties are critical, given the huge investment that will go in defining future dominant design and infrastructure.

It seems clear that cars are going to go electric ... but when and exactly based on which dominant design? Apart from this there is a huge issue related to time. While in high-tech change is very fast and there is a clear strategic case for being fast, this might not be true in "hard" manufacturing, where diffusion is likely to be slow and painful for early movers, and subject so a significant "sailing ship effect". 

A well-written paper on the battle for OS dominance when moving from a PC-based world to cloud computing (provided this transition really happens, of course). Some interesting examples from history are provided too.

It's likely that some of the words such as "netbook", "smartbook", "tablet", etc. will sound funny and obsolete in the near future. However, it is always like this during paradigm changes. Industry is now trying to understand what comes after the PC, and no product architecture and usage process has yet emerged as dominant.

An interesting article on the battle being fought by Apple and Google, arguably the companies that are more likely (maybe with Facebook) to shape the future of IT and media. The article shows the two competing visions and philosophies, with Google focused on information management and Apple on user experience. Not by chance, the once dominant Microsoft is not even taking part in this game.

There is another paradigm shift that is currently coming out. Incandescent lamps are getting to the end of their lifecycle, and we are observing competition between low-power fluorescents and LED lights. If progress in LED lights will be fast enough, it is likely that they will become the dominant technology. If not, they might remain confined to niche applications.