Expect a tech recession this year, says Michael Malone of ABCNews.com. He predicts a failure by Apple to produce any new blockbuster products, forcing it to compete on price and distribution—“not its greatest strengths”—and a “major stumble” by Google, for which he cites the recent exits of various senior execs.
“It could be because they're so rich … but it could also be because they know trouble is coming,” Malone argues. But he sees a light at the end of the ’08 tunnel—2009. He predicts three hot products to fuel a new tech boom next year: a wall-sized plasma TV from Panasonic, the super-thin Sony XEL-1 11-inch TV and a Panasonic portable DVD player with 13 hours’ battery life. (More Consumer Electronics Show stories.)