I'll dig around for last years predictions, I think I got the number of residents correct as per June. The rest...well they were rubbish anyway.
For 2008 :-
The rate of Linden churn increases.
Concurrency hits 100,000.
An exploit is found in the LindenX, and all transactions are shutdown for two days.
Smaller Grids are installed in Europe and possibly Japan. Residents are routed via IP addresses, which cause a problem for European AOL users.
Googles Virtual world is lauded for it's User Interface, and ease of use. It becomes the standard for the VW that SL enjoys today. LL suddenly hurries up it's UI development to maintain some growth.
Virtual Worlds don't become mainstream this year. Much like the term "multimedia" was bandied around for about 3 years, and then that just meant a sound card and CD player and speakers..like errrr..yeh.. wow.
An SL Machinema is shown on prime time BBC.
A lawsuit from some religious groups who want to ban all sexual content and products is launched, and then thrown out of court.
A Land Baron goes bust, and the fall out causes property prices to fall 30%.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and a father of radio, 25 February, 1967.
