January 9, 2011 | chriscombsadmin I took some time this weekend to think about some themes I think will be big in 2011. I've expanded on several trends below. 1. Anything Mobile My bet is if you don't already have a smartphone, you will in the next two years. Since Apple launched their iPod, iPhone and iPad mobile devices starting three years ago they have sold 120 million units. Everything is moving towards the mobile personal computing device. If I had to pick one specific mobile sector that will see growth, it would be mobile health, or mHealth. Providing access to medical records and information is a big enough pain that should lead to some new concepts soon. 2. IPO Market This will be the year things finally loosen up and we see several tech companies make public offerings. Rumor his it that LinkedIn will be the first to go, if for no other reason than to beat Facebook to it and capture some publicity. Facebook will wait until 2012 as evidenced by their recent $500M financing from Goldman Sachs. Zynga, Groupon and Twitter are other names you may hear. The only apprehension I have to this is most companies are raising money from other sources as opposed to the public markets just like Facebook did. Twitter and Groupon both just raised huge private rounds as opposed to a public round. I think we are seeing that companies have options as to how to finance outside of public markets. 3. Television Over Internet Protocol (TVIP) and Connected TV's This is a huge, emerging market for the upcoming year. Television and the web are both massive market opportunities, but no one has really connected the two in a big way for live TV. YouTube is most likely a first mover in this space with their launch of a live channel in addition to their streaming. Its possible Hulu could also be a mover here, with their success in TV streaming and possible IPO soon. Justin.tv is also a name you may hear. It's also possible that the big move could come from a TV company like Samsung, who has already sold 6.5 million “connected TV's”. These TV's have already seen a million apps downloaded to them, proving apps are not just a marketplace for the smartphone. This area is prime for disruption and I think you will see some dramatic changes in the near future. Opportunity for a startup like ATDHE.NET that curates live streams? Possibly. 4. Rockets and Space Travel One “off the web” prediction, is the trend of rocket technology and commercial space travel. Keep an eye on a companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic as space travel becomes privatized and real for everyone…or at least people with money. So that's what I'm seeing. Feel free to share any thoughts and opinions below.