The arrival of netbooks as a competing PC platform, the explosion of social media networking for both business and personal use, and the rise of smart grid technology are among the emerging themes unveiled today in Deloitte’s 2009 Global Predictions for the technology industry.
Among Deloitte’s Technology Predictions for 2009, highlights include:
Making every electron count: the rise of the SmartGrid
In 2009, electricity is expected to account for over 16 percent of all energy used. However, the average efficiency of the world’s legacy electricity grids is around only 33 percent. Enter SmartGrid technologies. SmartGrid companies add computer intelligence and networking to existing electrical grids, yielding a consumption savings of up to 30 percent. SmartGrid solutions providers enjoyed 50 percent revenue growth in 2008 and may generate $25 billion in revenues in 2009.
Disrupting the PC: the rise of the Netbook
The netbook, also known as the mini-notebook, is likely to be the fastest growing PC segment in 2009. The momentum behind netbooks should grow, with new models offering better processors and improved hard drives. Although netbooks have the potential to threaten PC and other sub-sectors’ margins, careful market development and expanded applications offer significant opportunities as well. PC manufacturers should consider the market for premium netbooks, with producers of operating systems developing products designed specifically for netbooks. Other technology companies should take advantage of the inexpensive, low-power central processing units (CPU) of netbooks, with home-media systems, digital video recorders, and game consoles capitalizing on the new CPUs.
Social networks in the enterprise: Facebook for the Fortune 500
It looks as though 2009 will be the breakout year for social networks in the enterprise. Large Information Technology (IT )companies are planning on spending significant money in 2009 on social network applications and are building research centers that focus exclusively on enterprise social networking (ESN).
Some major telecommunications companies are already deploying social networking solutions internally and as part of their global service offerings. Even governments are likely to deploy ESN, both internally and to interact with constituents. But while ESN looks like an easy way to capture value at a relatively low cost and applications are still being refined, enterprises need to develop social networks so that they engender productivity and balance control with employees’ desire for privacy.
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