Who’s Going to be the Apple of 2008?

No doubt, 2007 was the Year of the Apple (or the iPod/iPhone), although it was, in fact, the Year of the Pig.

And Henry Blodget decided to cap things off with an ultra-bullish post on why Apple will rock while Windows will wither on the vine, which I’m sure will generate lots of egg nog and turkey-fueled debate today.

So what will be the hot company in 2008? Who will capture the spotlight?

Maybe it will be Amazon as it becomes much more than just an online book seller? Look at how many start-ups are using S3 as a key part of their business plans.

Maybe Mozilla will surprise everyone by transforming itself from a non-profit, open-source browser developer into something much more significant with the launch of Weave.

And what about Microsoft? Will 2008 finally be the year its Web strategies start to overshadow Windows and Office?

I’m really not one for predications but here’s a few:

1. eBay is acquired, probably by Yahoo.

2. Mark Zuckerberg is replaced as Facebook’s CEO but Facebook is not acquired.

3. The Dallas Mavericks win the NBA championships but sadly for Mark Cuban, HDTV will fail to take off.

4. While Web 2.0 will remain alive and well, the venture capital community will finally a new love – green and alternative energy.

5. The online advertising market sees strong growth (+20% YOY) but advertisers will continue to be cautious about the blogosphere.

6. Google shares crack $1,000.

7. TechCrunch’s Dead Pool welcomes dozens, if not hundreds, of new members.

8. Apple launches an iCamera.

9. To drive deeper into the Web, the New York Times will make several major acquisitions, possibly The Huffington Post.

10. The wireless Web will fail to materialize again even though 3G and WiMax technology will become more prevalent. E-mail and voice will continue to be the wireless world’s one-two punch, which is good news for Research in Motion.