How many new TLDs will there be?

One of the hot topics that will be under discussion at the upcoming ICANN meeeting in Paris will be the introduction of new TLDs.

I’ve mentioned a few of the campaigns previously on my domain blog (expect more activity on there while I’m at ICANN!)

So how many new TLDs will there be?
How many applicants can we expect to see?

I had been thinking about the entire thing a small bit over the last year, but Anthony Van Couvering decided to go one step further and conducted an informal poll

He emailed a group of people from within the domain industry, including myself, and asked us what we thought. The numbers and comments are quite diverse, but based on the conversations I’ve been privy to, they’re hardly surprising.