You might not think that one month is sufficient time for a trend line for the rest of the year to unfold, but a number of developments already have materialized that give a glimpse at what is to come for 2010.

To that point, here are 10 ways the year has started off in tech that will set the agenda for the rest of 2010.

1. Mobility: We have Google, Apple, the telecom carriers, Microsoft playing catch-up and more cool new mobile devices than you can, well, hold in your hand. The workforce will not be going back to their cubes. Corporations are going to have to rethink their structure and design their organizations for mobile workers who are always online. This workforce is location-aware and ready to do business.

2. Tablet redux: Remember Momenta? For about $5K you got a DOS-based tablet in 1991 that sort of worked. And Bill Gates loved the tablet in 2001. The Apple iPad promises to be the tablet that really does meet market expectations. Tablets have always held a lot of promise in the business world, and even more so today as a digital eReader that may finally make the paperless office a reality. There are already rumors (and prototype photos) of a Google Android-based tablet that will give Apple a run for the money.

3. FCoE: No better way to start off the year than with a good acronym. In this case, we’re talking Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). FCoE holds the promise of converging storage area networks and data networks in the data center, which would make administration, wiring and resource allocation a whole lot easier. There remains a lot of work to do here, but this is the year when the acronym becomes parts of the data center arsenal.

4. Transitional clients: You have rich clients in a desktop or notebook format. You have a desire to incorporate cloud computing and software-as-a-service offerings into your traditional IT network. So, what do you do? You build clients with virtual walls. The business apps run in a protected mode on the desktop or notebook, while users can run all those games and social networks in their personal virtual spaces. And, if all works, never will those two virtual spaces spill over onto one another.

5. Microsoft redux: Windows 7 is doing well. Now Microsoft has to concentrate on building its own transitional client/server business strategy.

6. Google stretches its legs: There has been lots of talk about a Google business app store coming this spring. This would be a big deal, as a business could build a business from an app menu and feel that Google's size and heft are behind the process. This year could be a breakout year for Google in the business world.

7. Virtual worlds redux: OK, Second Life the first time around was a mess of obscene avatars and business expectations that could never be met. I've taken a second look at Second Life, and the virtual world looks more and more like a good place to conduct seminars, distribute information and be a business hangout.

8. Social networks redux: This year is the big year for social networks to find a business model. I've taken a look again at Plaxo recently, which has found some sanity and is returning to the model of being a good place to build, maintain and extend contact lists. Facebook is still not the business place to be. LinkedIn needs to rethink its pricing strategy, which puts needed improvements like folder management out of reach for most participants.

9. Blossoming of cloud-based business services: There are so many around: e-seminar services, secure backup services, financial services. All that venture capital and sweat equity is translating into really useful business services available on the Web. The difficulty will be choosing the best of a variety of services aimed at the same function.

10. Don't forget Salesforce, Amazon and Ubuntu: Salesforce was the first to declare software dead and services transcendent. Amazon was way ahead of the pack in offering its infrastructure as a service and seeing the value in eReaders. Ubuntu keeps getting better and more user-friendly. These companies and communities have not been sleeping, and a rebounding economy will give them license to introduce new services and features even faster.