WordPress 2012 is very much an anticipated “event”. The coming of the new year always raise our expectations higher as to what are the new products and new features. Also included in our expectations are the WordPress events that are being planned for the new year. Sit tight as we explore the new themes, new plugins, new features, new smart phone apps and hopefully new third party integrations that are either just been release or are in the works.
WordPress Themes
This year we have seen the future of WordPress themes. And PageLines is leading the way in terms of WordPress theme innovation. It’s most interesting feature is its drag and drop theme Platform Pro. All you have to do is drag and drop elements in order to create your layout. Absolutely no programming required. It is what a theme customization should be.
And talking about drag and drop, WordPress.com has recentyle added a feature where users can actually drag and drop images from their local computer on to their WordPress post! It also introduced fly out menus. So from these features alone we can see where WordPress technology is headed in 2012. It’s heading towards enhancing user experience by building these incredible features.
The new elements of HTML 5 will be ubiquitous in new WordPress themes for the year 2012. It’s trending already and it is making Flash rethink its position. It’s well known that Apple does not permit Flash to run in its iOS operating system and Flash has conceded defeat in the smart phone area. Eventually HTML 5 with CSS 3 and their succeeding versions will have the capabilities of all Flash’s features and functions. It’s definitely going to be exciting for WordPress theme developers to take advantage of these. The video and audio elements of HTML 5 comes with its own API so that developers can create their own interface. The form element is also being improved and although it’s in its infancy when it comes to evolving, it’s a soon to watch element. And as these features improve so does the quality of WordPress themes.
Certain WordPress theme development companies will shine and make and impact this 2012. We have picked some of the top companies that will exceed user expectations when it comes to innovation and usability. Here’s our pick for 2012
PremiumPress. They are definitely one of the strong theme developers for WordPress out there. Based in the UK, PremiumPress boasts of premium themes like ShopperPress, DirectoryPress, and CouponPress. The name of the theme itself gives an idea on what niche it is used for. ShopperPress, for example, is a theme that your would like to use when you are setting up and e-commerce site. Be it your own online shop or an affiliate shop, this theme has the functionalities that has stretch the versatility of the WordPress platform. They also have themes for the real estate, classified and auction niche. A new theme called MoviePress will be out by 2012 and it is something to watch out for. Videos will be huge in the year 2012. And this theme is being hotly anticipated. You can find coupon codes on this site if you would like to get some discount from their themes.
Elegant Themes. When it comes to user-friendliness, themes from this provider definitely gets five stars! It is well designed and uses high quality icons in its interface. The strength of their WordPress themes is not much on the sophistication of native functionalities (compared to ShopperPress for example) but on the high quality of its design. If you are looking for aesthetically pleasing and effective layouts, then this is the theme provider to go to. Their pricing is unbelievable as well!
Solostream. Here’s a theme provider that comes with a lot of testimonials from their own users. Having social proof is one good way to asses whether a product is worth what you pay for. And the good thing about SoloStream is that they offer premium as well as free WordPress themes. Testing their free themes, gives an indication on the quality of workmanship that they have and at the same time, if you are a WordPress theme coder or have some insights about theme development, you would know whether their themes are of good quality. Their themes are primarily targeted for the blogger, domainer and small businesses wanting a web presence. Their two new WordPress themes: WP-ClearPhoto and WP-Responsive shows how they have continually improved and evolved fro their first few themes. One great feature of the latter theme is that your website will adjust to the different screen sizes users use so that your website will look well developed. Just one of the great innovation for WordPress 2012.
WooThemes. Definitely one of the stronger players out there, WooThemes have come up with themes that are really outstanding and most of them are within the four to five star category. And there are a lot of themes to choose from. just recently they have release WooCommerce which are WordPress e-commerce themes designed for the website that needs a shopping cart and shopping functionalities. You will need to download the WooCommerce plugin in order to add those online store functionalities. WooCommerce boasts of five payment gateways and it comes with different niche themes so that you can adjust the look of your website depending on the type of products or services you’ll be selling online. A lot of improvements in store for this company when it comes to WordPress in 2012.
Studiopress. This WordPress theme provider has great testimonials from famous internet personalities which include Darren Rose and WordPress founder himself – Matt Mullenweg. It’s not surprising if this business continues to be one of the major players in WordPress 2012. Mashable called its framework theme (called Genesis) as one of the best that is being offered online. It even claims that it is the successor to the Thesis theme where the latter is know for being the best theme to perform Search Engine Optimization. It’s main selling point is its Child Theme framework. This allows for easy customization without breaking the main features because they are all in the parent theme. Another great selling point is that widgets can go almost anywhere on the web page and is not confined to the sidebar.
WordPress Plugins
When it comes to plugin development, it’s all about being social and having connections with great third party sites and services. Viewing the new plugins in WordPress can also show you what’s trending and most likely you will be finding plugins that are social networking related or plugins with third-party services (i.e. e-commerce plugins). These plugins were hot in 2011 and will still be in 2012.
But what we are really expecting is plugins that work with cloud services. This is similar to the idea of one of the TechCrunch Disrupt winner who built a Chrome plugin that organizes information in the cloud seamlessly.
We’ll also see more plugins that let’s your WordPress site go mobile or smartphone friendly. There are a number of plugins that are now available online that does exactly this such as:
- MobilePress
- Mobify
- WpTouch
- Quick SMS
- The WordPress Mobile Pack
And speaking of mobile and smart phones…
WordPress Mobile apps
Ahhh yes, mobile apps have been growing eversince the iPhone and Android made their debut. In case you did not know, the official WordPress site has a page dedicated to mobile apps with WordPress. The year 2012 is definitely good year for WordPress to shine and come out of what it seems like a lackluster use of advance technology.
There are already a number of smart phone apps that lets you manage your WordPress website using your smart phone. Some of them are:
- WordPress for iPhone
- WordPress for Blackberry
- WordPress for Android 1.0
- Wphone
With all these goodies it’s a good decision to have a WordPress website. If you still do not have one be sure to looks at our WordPress website tutorial. If you already have a WordPress website, keep on visiting this site this 2012 because we are now developing a tutorial on how to create mobile and smart phone apps for your WordPress website. Examples that we will be posting can itself benefit your WordPress site immediately.
One good news that has greeted WordPress.com users prior to the start of 2012 is that the site will now have its own advertising platform called WordAds according to its official blog! This was brought about by the users as well who were clamoring to have some sort of AdSense platform for their blogs. As of this writing, this ad platform is limited to WordPress.com users who have their own domain names pointing to the WordPress site. But this is just the beginning. The wishlist is that this ad platform will be incorporated to new WordPress CMS versions where users can just point and click or even drag and drop the ads on to their posts or pages. Now this is one feature to look out for the year 2012!
New WordPress Versions
The development life cycle of online applications get shorter every year. At the end of 2011 we saw the release of version 3.3. This WordPress version, codenamed “Sonny”, includes improvements in its UI and also in it contextual help. It also has a Tumblr importer optimized for the iPad. With the developer heading off more innovations (i.e. click and drag features), the year 2012 could be the year where these innovations can filter through the main WordPress application.
Legal Challenges
WordPress including its WordPress Themes has a GPL (General Public License) which basically means that you can modify the theme or derive a work out of WordPress as long as it is distributed with the same license terms. In this case WordPress and its components are made free to the public. So when Chris Pearson, developer of the Thesis theme, decided to put a price tag on his work then a debate ensued between him and Matt Mullenweg from WordPress. In Mid 2010, Chris got a somewhat of a rebuke from Matt regarding his decision. And with WordPress still growing at an astonishingly rate year-by-year, such legal issues will, presumably, continue to pop up every now and then. So watch out for more WordPress legal issues coming out this 2012. The opportunities to challenge the GPL is always there because the license still has not been tested in the court of law.
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