FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONTACT Ms. Carrie Vanston, Media Relations Director (800) TEK-FUTR, (512) 258-8898 E-mail: cvanston@tfi.com

TFI Provides 2005 Trends that will Catalyze the Future

Austin, TX, December 27, 2004--What are the important emerging technology and policy trends for 2005 and beyond? Below, popular futurist and technologist, David Smith (Vice President, Technology Futures, Inc, [TFI]) provides important emerging technology trends developed through TFI's forecasting, strategy, and analysis work. These trends will be of great consequence to those involved with global business, technology business process, science and universities, government agencies, federal labs, corporate labs, and technology savvy consumers.

Significant Technology Trends for 2005:

• The timeframe of the product life-cycle continues to decrease: By the time a product hits the market, its shelf life is half what it used to be. So, to remain competitive, the science and research time will become more intensive and innovative earlier as product development time continues to compress at an unprecedented rate.
• Outsourcing and globalization become paradigms of success: To be successful in a real-time, global marketplace, businesses must understand and adapt to the new source of competitive advantage by connecting to the core competencies and customer interaction on global scale. In the global business world, global collaboration is imperative.
• Broadband and high-speed wireless penetration reach a large enough market for new classes of applications to emerge: These new products will explicitly take advantage of what broadband and wireless networks have to offer in terms of mobility and accessibility to the global marketplace. Location-based services is one class of service that will emerge.
• Dramatic escalation in device-to-device communication versus people-to-people communication continues: The traffic on the Internet is no longer people talking to people, but people talking to devices and devices talking to devices.
• The Age of Bio will maintain its marked acceleration: National and global collaboration is enhancing its commercialization potential.

Policy Trends as a Catalyst for the Future:

• Policies are needed that encourage an open, standards-based infrastructure and positioning U.S. organizations as early adapters to information technology developments: The U.S. will lose its technology leadership unless it focuses on devising such policies.
• An information age emerging increasingly driven by needs for precision, accuracy, timeliness, and convenience in all of our endeavors- personal, business, and governmental.
• A major revolution continues in IT growth in such areas as the Internet, wireless and wired communications, mobile applications, and electronic commerce.
• Information technology becoming ubiquitous and expanding within the private, business, and global worlds. Every device becomes a server.
• Quality of life improvements in such areas as smart appliances, cars, highways, and buildings, easier access to knowledge, and revolutionary new concepts in health-related fields.
• An increasingly mobile and global society becoming ever more reliant on a worldwide availability of information.

Mr. Smith would be glad to be interviewed for an article on trends for 2005 and beyond. We also welcome the press to use this material, citing David Smith and Technology Futures, Inc. as sources.

Mr. Smith has been actively involved in technology management and forecasting for more than 30 years. Since joining TFI in 1996, he has assisted in creating and implementing plans for such organizations as Boeing, CIA, Coca-Cola, Department of Defense, Embraer, Hughes, Intel, Compaq, Kodak, Kyocera, Lockheed Martin, National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and Sun Microsystems.

Recent national and international presentations include Keynote Speeches for the U.S. Senate Conference on Emerging Technology, Information Management Forum, Kodak's Global Leadership Forum, the Photography & Imaging Manufacturing Association (PIMA), 7-11, and the Society of Telecommunications Consultants (STC) Conference.

Mr. Smith's views on technology trends have been prominently featured in Business Week and American Demographics, among other publications. Many of his citations and activities can be found under TFI News. An electronic copy of his photo is located at http://www.tfi.com/pressroom/materials.html.

For more than 25 years, TFI has helped organizations plan for the future by offering outstanding technology forecasting, strategic planning, trend analysis, and strategic market research services in high-technology and telecom technologies. Drawing on proven, quantifiable forecasting methods and strategic applications, we combine the vision of the futurist with the down-to-earth judgment of the technologist. Let us be "Your Bridge to the Future."

PRESS CONTACT:

Please contact Ms. Carrie Vanston by telephone at (800) TEK-FUTR, (512) 258-8898, or by email at cvanston@tfi.com with questions or comments or to arrange an interview with Mr. Smith, or other experts at TFI. We are always happy to comment on the subjects of technology and telecom trends. We welcome you to look over our Press Room.

December 27, 2004
Technology Futures, Inc.
13740 Research Boulevard, Building C
Austin, TX 78750
(800) 835-3887 or (512) 258-8898
Fax: (512) 258-0087
www.tfi.com