Of course, there will be stories that we have not identified that could generate significant coverage in 2010. But based on what we know now, here’s a list of some of the stories reporters are sure to be working on this year (though not necessarily in this order):

1. The economy, including the recovery, the housing market, auto industry and the “new normal.”
2. The freelancing of the US workforce — or how we’ll all be contractors or “perma-temps” in the future (especially given the jobless nature of the recovery).
3. Apple’s iPad and the future of mobile computing and Apple’s iPads vs. cellphones vs. Kindle and other e-readers.
4. Cloud computing and virtualization — and yes, we know: they’re not the same thing.
5. Health care reform.
6. Regulations.
7. Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft and EMC vs. HP vs. Oracle.
8. 3-D TVs.
9. The state of the media, especially print media and advertising, online-only business models and online subscriptions.
10. Twitter’s business model.
11. Location-based services and behavioral targeting by advertisers.
12. Online privacy as social media, behavioral targeting, location-based services and hackers combine to make it easy for others to access personal information.

Please note: This is not to exclude other topics we’ve included in our 2010 predictions.