We all do this. With the year coming to a close we all think forward and prognosticate about what the future will hold. To call 2009 an amazing year for our industry would be an enormous understatement. We’re going to see even more progress in 2010.

So with that, I want to share with you the 10 things I think I think about 2010:

10. Marketers will fail to make mobile work. Every year it seems, publications proclaim the upcoming year, “the year of mobile.” And every year it seems that proclamation fails to live up to the expectations. While I expect consumer use of the mobile web (including apps) to skyrocket, I think we’ll see marketers fall flat on their face as they try to leverage the space. This shouldn’t be new news. Marketers failed to nail, right out of the gate, in-game advertising, social media, and video advertising. We’ve already seen plenty of mis-steps by marketers in the mobile arena. 2010 will be one in which we’ll see a lot of swings and misses.

9. Companies will hire “Social Media Strategists” and other similar types of titles/roles. But, by the end of the year, they’ll realize what a mistake it was to create niche roles, hire specialists, and treat social as something different than “traditional” marketing. Those who can scale horizontally after being hired will succeed. Those who can’t will find themselves without jobs in 2011.

8. Syndication of content will become very important for consumers. Tools like Ping.fm will skyrocket in popularity as people realize how insane and tedious it us to update their statuses across the variety of networks they belong to. People will want to update and sync their statuses from their XBOX 360, twitter account, facebook profile, blog, etc.

7. Netbooks will fail because cell phones will become more than adequate substitutes. Even today, people are using their iPhones more and more on business trips…and leaving their laptops behind. As cell phones become more robust and offer longer battery life, we’re going to see people using cell phones as computers. The key to seeing this happen will be battery life. Features are great. Apps are awesome. But, if your cell phone dies after only 3 hours of use, we’re going to have some major problems.

6. There’s going to be a major backlash against so-called “social media experts.” We’re starting to see some of this taking place now. As more people get wise on the basics of social, they’re going to start demanding better thinking, more accountability, and real results from the people they are paying nearly $100 to see speak.

5. Companies are going to collect talent like never before…even when positions don’t currently exist. Companies like Edelman, AKQA, and Fleishman Hillard are already doing this. These companies will focus on roles and not titles. They will focus on what these individuals can bring to the table, not what bill rate their title can command.

4. Cars will advance dramatically in the areas of personalization and entertainment. Imagine a situation where your car syncs your music, podcasts, news, and the like when you pull into you garage…or better yet with the cloud via satellite.

3. A movie studio will have the balls to release a movie on DVD, on-demand, and in-theater all at the same time. Each medium of course will have it’s own price tag. Consumers will be able to choose how they want to watch the movie.

2. People will redefine the term “friend.” It will evolve to something along the line of “connection.” We don’t really have 5,000 friends; well maybe Brian Solis does…but what we might have are 5,000 connections. Marketers and companies will of course struggle with how to communicate this.

1. With all the focus on cloud computing and linking/syncing accounts, we will see a major security breach of consumer data. People will realize that once you’ve cracked someone’s gmail account, you now have access to their google docs, youTube account, google analytics accounts, etc. Trust me on this one.