Hmmm ... storage is important, sort of, except that storage capacities are already expanding at 10 times the rate of bandwidth. So you'd think bandwidth would be the next big push. But people are moving more towards wireless and handheld -- which has intrinsically less bw capabilities.
I think more likely the next big winner will be file systems that help you sort your data. We have too much stuff, and we can't organize it. A file system that kept track of meta-data, rather than simply blindly storing data, is probably on the horizon. Expect a fs which keeps track of file associations: A and B were used in conjunction with each other. C and Q have similar names. P and Z have related content. (shrug) Or maybe I'm wrong.
The other guess would be security. Wireless security right now is almost humorous. WEP looks for all the world (sort of) like a one-time-cipher-pad encryption, except we use the same key on every packet (sort of). One easy-to-use wireless encryption standard requires the key to be sent plaintext over the air, then returned encrypted. ???? Who thinks of these things?! We've obviously got a lot of development to gain here.
On the OS front, I keep hearing the winds of change against M$. More and more, I hear people saying that Mac (which is like BSD, except cooler) is excellent, and that they've never been so happy with their computer since they switched to Gentoo/Mandrake/SuSe. I suspect that M$'s massive size will take many years to eventually die. Between here and there, there will certainly be plenty of opportunities for repentance, and they may yet "get it."
Google is liable to turn into the next Evil Empire, in M$'s place. So far, they have a lot of really good ideas, and they're totally benevolent. Leadership will change, however. I'm not holding out hope in human nature.
(shrug) That's my $.02, and boy, did you get your money's worth.
Dan