The Good and Bad of 2003 Tech Industry

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Commentary<br>By Michael J. Miller
January 7, 2006, 7:58 AM ET
2 min read

Dec. 30, 2003 -- Many good things happened in the computer industry in the past year, but they were balanced by some not-so-good news.

Here's my list of the nice and naughty things that occurred during 2003.

The Nice

The computer industry is on the road to recovering from its recession.

Windows XP proved more stable than previous versions of Windows.

Mobile computing had its best year ever, with the Intel Pentium M driving more power into smaller form factors.

Wireless networking went mainstream; most notebooks now come with 802.11 (Wi-Fi) features.

AMD introduced its Athlon 64 and Opteron chips, which promise easy migration to 64-bit computing and compatibility with exisiting 32-bit applications.

The new Apple G5 is the most powerful mainstream computer on the market, and Panther is the most integrated operating systems (OS).

The new Media Center PCs are a great way to view photos, listen to music, and record TV.

The latest Tablet PCs are fast and have innovative designs.

Digital cameras, camcorders, music players, and photo printers are more capable than ever.

Paid digital music services finally got on the right track with a pay-as-you-go sales model.

The Naughty

We're still a long way from the highs of the late 1990s, and many jobs are moving overseas.

There were way too many Windows security problems and patches.

The various Intel chip names (Pentium 4, Pentium M, Mobile Pentium 4 Processor-M, and so on) confused a lot of people.

We still need more Wi-Fi hot spots and roaming arrangements among the wireless service providers.

Support from the major PC makers for the new 64-bit processors remains tepid.

Apple still has a small market share and needs to bring the G5 processor to less expensive systems.

The Media Center PCs' video quality could be better, and burning DVDs from recorded TV is difficult.

The Tablet PC market is still small, and the integration of handwriting recognition could be better.

Photo-printing costs are still too high, and no computer is really fast enough for editing video.

The pay-for-play online music services still need a better music selection, and piracy is leading to more restrictive digital rights management.