Technology trends to look out for in the coming year – Speeds, Social Media, Smartphones and more

So what now that the new year has begun and we’re in the full swing of things for the year?

Well, for starters, analysts predict that the information and communications technology (ICT) world is expected to bounce back after being hit somewhat by the global economic slowdown.

IDC, for example, notes that the ICT spending and growth in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) will reach US$184 billion in 2010 with a 7.7% growth over this year.

The research firm also notes that the telecom and managed services and networking market would show moderate growth in 2010 and that the APeJ telecom services market is expected to reach US$252 billion in 2010, representing a growth rate of 6.0%.

With the growth generally expected to come back, albeit a little slower than usual, what are some of the trends that the industry is expected to see this year?

Analysts can’t agree on all the trends but here are some of the major technological developments that are expected to gain some traction this year.

1. The emergence of true high-speed broadband.
It’s been widely acknowledged by all in the industry that the state of broadband in the country has left a lot to be desired. Still, Malaysia is on the cusp of reliable and true high speed broadband delivered via fibre optics technology with the impending high-speed broadband (HSBB) roll out set to be revealed sometime this year by incumbent player, Telekom Malaysia.

If all goes as planned, Malaysia should see the introduction of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) and an iPhone-type application store concept for broadband with multiple application companies trying to cash-in on the growth of HSBB, according to Frost & Sullivan.

“The key growth should happen in the content and multimedia sphere – an area that’s already strong in focus by recent allocations in the 2010 budget,” says Delesh Kumar, director, Frost & Sullivan. “In addition, these two factors should also see more competitive offerings in broadband pricing from a cost-per-Mbps perspective.”

However, Kumar warns that for the industry to show any significant growth, there is a need for all service providers to focus on network quality. “If cost and network quality do not see any improvements in 2010, meeting the 50% broadband penetration by end of 2010 will still remain a distant target.”

2. The inevitability of social media in enterprises
This year is expected to usher in social media in the enterprise. IDC believes that the convergence of economic necessity, mature enabling technology, and an increasing market awareness will mean this will be the year where social media truly gains traction and establishes itself as a natural and accepted tool for Asian companies, CIOs, and CMOs.

Frost’s Kumar concurs, noting that not only global companies such as Cadbury have begun using this but also large local firms such as AirAsia are using blogs as a means of marketing, branding, as well as for customer management.

Kumar says going forward we will see further integration of these solutions into the internal processes of companies, as companies are beginning to consider creating Knowledge Wikis to reduce the learning curve internally in customer care management.

The traditional means of customer engagement (spanning from creating awareness to acquiring customers and post-sales support) is being gradually replaced with email, SMS or even FAQs on company websites, instead of the traditional call-based customer support, he adds.

3. The rise of smartphones and how they will be used by businesses.
The key driver of smartphones, notes IDC, is the increasing sophistication of mobile users. IDC predicts shipments of converged devices are likewise expected to grow from 7.5% of all shipments in 2008 to 13% in 2010.

What’s more important is how these devices are being used as they become more and more powerful. Frost’s Kumar says changing business operating models with the introduction of more mobile workforce and growth in the adoption of Blackberry and virtual private network (VPN) solutions by corporations is further driving the need to introduce alternative communications frameworks such as unified communications and mobility solutions.

“This adds further complexity in terms of data storage and access, as well as integrating security measures to accommodate the change from traditional LAN-based solutions to WAN-based solutions.”

4. Cost pressures are forcing enterprises to reduce operational expenditure
One of the most repeated mantras last year was, “Do more with less.” This of course has resulted in many companies having to cut expenditure drastically, with ICT being one of the first to go.

Notwithstanding that times may get better this year, cost optimisation is still driving a lot of companies to consider technologies such as virtualisation, managed services and cloud computing, in trying to manage ICT management costs, says Frost’s Kumar.

These three technologies are still very nascent, and companies are only expected to make incremental migrations into these platforms, and will do so cautiously as there are still issues to do with reliability, security and operating processes that must be optimised for such platforms.

Still IDC believes that the combination of “5 nines” (99.99999) guarantees plus a robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) capabilities will be the new “killer application” in cloud services.

5. SMEs to spend but only when absolutely necessary
Small medium enterprises (SMEs) continue to be the bedrock of the economy and while the slowdown has made them wary of ICT upgrades, Frost’s Kumar expects that they will cash in on the recent tax benefits on ICT investments announced in the 2010 budget.

SMEs, he says, will use this as an opportunity to update some of their existing infrastructure but this will be mainly in purchasing and upgrading their hardware platforms.

“Investments in more applications like e-commerce will still take some time as SMEs embrace ICT adoption gradually,” he explains. “Investments by SMEs on R&D will still be a long-term target, but I expect a lot of development in the green technologies sphere boosted by the RM1.5 billion allocation the government has embarked on.”