Despite the best efforts of software and hardware vendors, technology has almost lost its wow factor and is becoming mundane.

During the past few months I have noticed the most unlikely people now have computers, while the most extravagantly-hyped technological developments have been relatively insignificant.

Technology appears to be in grave danger of becoming boring. Is there anything left to look forward to?

I am rather doubtful.

The computer industry doesn't appear to do "earth-shattering" anymore - although certain developments should make a considerable difference to our overall "computing experience".

For a start, we will almost certainly see a period of technological consolidation by the vendors. Technologies will begin to work together to offer better user features while bandwidth issues will finally be resolved.

I believe we can reasonably hope for increased system stability. Fewer computer crashes and less computer generated angst. Since Windows 2000 appeared on the scene, things have definitely picked up but there is still a lot of room for operating system improvement.

Most software could still be more intuitive although vendors have made amazing strides.

User expectations have driven an upsurge in usability testing that sorts out obvious bugs and glitches but we are still seeing software out before it is ready.

This is almost certainly because the race to market is becoming shorter. A new product now has to be on sale faster than ever before another developer releases a similar concept and floods the marketplace.

This level of urgency often doesn't leave enough time for adequate testing.

With a computer literate market, it is no longer possible to release a new application and expect users to road test it.

Even Microsoft has recognised issuing patches to cover their mistakes is inadequate so the overall quality of software should improve considerably.

Hardware is another area of contention that should improve.

Manufacturers and retailers have recognised end users now know and understand what they are buying, so shoddy goods are vanishing from the shelves.

The overall quality of computers is rising.

Laptops are now affordable and work just as well as desktop machines.

Sadly, the next generation of laptops will be much the same as the ones we already have. Multi-functional PDAs, however, could dominate the market in a few short years.

We will have to wait for a change in storage technology before we can expect a radical change in computer design. But the next big change could well come from the storage sector. Solid-state chip-based storage, maybe.

Web sites will undoubtedly provide one of the big areas of change.

As broadband technology becomes more common and more people start to understand that media-rich content is the way to go, we should see some exciting developments in digital design and some truly wonderful online publications.