Software engineer will be (again) forced to write more efficient software not because the hardware can't handle it, but to cause less impact to our environment

Hardware have started if not already becomes a commodity. We can see this in how apple shift their hardware architecture to Intel, the same chipset used by their competitor. Or the current trend of scaling back specs seen in the rising popularity of netbooks. No one cares too much about hardware except for the largest businesses.

Cloud computing will start a new trend where people will even more caring less about infrastructure.

Eventhough hardware is getting more and more affordable, the cost of running them are not. A huge percentage of the world's electricity consumption is spent on running the google of the world. Not forgetting the enviromental impact of producing such energies.

Cloud computing will need to base their pricing on the services. It will revolve around how many processes can run simultaneously and how much computing power their clients consumes. Software engineer will be (again) forced to write more efficient software not because the hardware can't handle it, but to cause less impact to our environment.