One thing I do hope to happen though is AMD and Intel Banding together. Although it's never going to happen unless Intel buys AMD out, which is very possible because AMD is dieing which actualy I don't mind at all, cause I am Intel all the way.
And if they did band together we wouldnt have to buy a motherboard speissiffic to our CPU's...
And advancements would happen much more quickly.
I personally dont think that AMD and Intel will band together, atleast for everyones sake i hope not. I also do not believe that advancements will happen more frequently. What many people don't realize (not saying you dont...i would never say that, simply saying that the average consumer may not realize) is that consumers NEED both companies, especially if you don't plan on paying a premium for a processor. Having two companies competing for your attention is one of the best things a consumer can have on his/her side.
Take for example, the Core2duo being released. What happened there? (this is putting aside the fact that the core2's are great processors for the price).
AMD went through and slashed the prices of a majority of their current cpu's.
Simply put, when companies compete, Consumer's win. You want two separate companies "battling" each other. Without that there will be serious issues.
1. Prices go up
I dont care how great a company is, and how consumer concious they are. If there isnt a competitor, prices are going to go way up. Governments will try to regulate this to prevent a complete monopoly, but even with that, prices will go up.
2. Advancements will not occur faster (atleast imo).
If a company does not have a main competitor it will not rush to get the next product out. They arent going to lose money if they dont get a product out right away, you still have to go through them for anything that you need. So they get your money one way or another. If anything, advancements would occur at an equal rate (although i believe they would decrease in rate). Even though you have two teams now working together, you dont have that drive to be better that you once had. You just have people thinking with their wallets, and that never works for the consumer.
Those are just two things right off the top of my head. I really would not like this at all.
To put an example out there, take microsoft for instance. (Great company, or it never woulda got where it is today). But, how long did it take for vista to be released? ...they dont have any main competition. Yay, apple....yay linux. But really there isnt another big competitor for the x86 architechture. Hence, you pay $200+ for an OS. I would rather have competition than one big awesome company.
Big awesome companies almost never hold the customer in as high reguard as a company with competition...a company that "needs" you.
hehe, idk just got my mind working and thinking a little bit. A good step away from boring college classes that arent up to my level, and video games hehe.
On the topic presented in this thread. I would totally love to see a 3d video game system, or holographic or something. So many times as a kid i got one of those games or systems that are supposed to be (like virtual boy, or on of those other no-name companies that made the games with the visor and glove or hand grip thingies for controllers) and was nothing but dissappointed.
Hopefully sometime in the future i can live my childhood fantasy of being completely and fully immersed in a 3d video game. Id have to be in a padded room though, without any furniture, especially if it was a fighter hehe.
Ohh and ya, for reasons mentioned above, I hope for everyones sake that microsoft and apple do not merge together. Microsofts biggest OS competitor that "charges" for the product right under their wing....not good. Cool looking/efficient OS i bet, but i dont like the idea of having absolutely no competition.
Dont get me wrong my linux friends...some of these newer distro's are beautiful and awesome. (other than not wanting to have to deal with Wine or some other program to use my windows programs...but thats another story...). But linux really doesnt compete with microsoft, atleast in the consumer retail world. I love linux, but well 1. i work at a retail pc store, and you just dont have people mobbing the store for that new linux distro...understandable, but not competition imo.