PC Magazine Editors Predict the Future of Technology and the Internet

Posted on December 29, 1998

Continued Internet growth, including expanded e-commerce and Internet development, occupy the first three spots on PC Magazine's top 10 predictions for the 1999 technology market. The editors of PC Magazine report that the growing number of people getting connected and embracing the Web's functions and features will continue to drive the Internet's role as both a business tool and a consumer computing, entertainment, information and educational source.

The magazine's top ten 1999 market predictions include the following:

Greater proliferation of e-commerce sites
Advanced Web site personalization
Expanded community Web sites -- Web sites where people exchange information and ideas
Faster PCs
Lighter notebooks
Proliferation of flat-panel displays
Greater advances in digital imaging devices
New tools that let anyone create multimedia elements
Increased range and variety of Internet enabled gadgets
Speech recognition in all types of consumer products

"The Internet will continue to expand, particularly in e-commerce in 1999," says Michael J. Miller, executive vice president and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. "This will be fueled by more and more people using the Web, new tools that make the online experience easier and more useful and more companies entering the e-commerce space."

In 1998, it seemed as if almost every business sported a Web presence or was preparing to go there, continues Miller. "We saw all sorts of new places to shop electronically. Web sites that sell books and music aren't new, but they have really improved over the past year. And, we've seen a lot of new places to buy everything from computer equipment and clothing to flowers and groceries."

PC Magazine's first issue of 1999 predicts the future of e-commerce and provides a review of the newest software tools enabling real-world business to expand onto the Web. The issue also provides the editors' list of top products for 1998, selected from thousands introduced and tested over the past 12 months. PC Magazine, published by Ziff-Davis, has a circulation rate base of 1.225 million. PC Magazine publishes 22 times a year in print, quarterly on CD and continuously on the Web.