Trends in 2008

Here I am with an astrologer hat trying to predict what will happen in 2008 more from the industry and technology perspective. I still have 7 weeks to move into 2008. I will be updating this news item frequently till we get to 2008.

Following are not necessarily in the order of priority. Numbers are mere place holders.

1. While Web 2.0 concepts are very mature in the US, it is very primitive in Asia. I read a report in India that says there are only 100 websites in India that use Web 2.0. Next year we will see more Web 2.0 adoption trends in Asia.

2. Mobile 2.0: This is hot hot area for now and will see more growth in the next 2 years to come. Both enterprise mobility and consumer based mobile applications will take center stage in 2008.

3. Virtualization (Hardware & Software) will grow into the corporate.

4. Weaker $ will make Asia stronger. Asian market especially India now should look to European market for growth.

5. Social networking concepts will be used with in an enterprise.

6. More product developments will come from India. We will see more such products created in India entering US markets. There will be more demand for Indians with Business development, Sales, Marketing skills in the USA to carry these products into US markets.

7. Convergence of devices: We already see the convergence trends this year. Next year will see Phone, Music, Photo, video devices converging. Laptop users will move into Pocket PC/Hand held devices. Connectivity,bandwidth, memory, display resolution etc. will improve on these devices.

8. Information sharing would improve with more companies exposing their API's and widgets. There will be more and more service related websites providing specific information to users allowing individuals to take informed decisions. For eg. Google widget give cheapest gas near your area. There will be more such widgets(cheap milk, cheap grocery etc) available next year. Shopping malls will have to deliver their promotion messages to individual homes through such widgets or API's.

9. Open source technology is poised for growth. However its success would depend on how easily schools and colleges adopt this technology. If more students learn this technology businesses will have compelling need to move in that direction. Asia will see more growth with open source technology as the product development companies would be able to create products at a low price.

10. IPTV is another area that will come into prominence. More and more community based broadcast or speciality channels reaching homes. Like Pod casting amateur TV shows will hit the market allowing individuals to have choices with their TV channels. Expatriates will have more choices to receive the feeds from their home towns.

11. It will be difficult for smaller companies ( I mean IT companies) to survive. We will see more consolidation of companies in the $100M to $500M range through acquisition. Indian companies will become more global by setting up development centers in other low cost countries.

12. With the weakening of dollar IT services companies will have cost pressures to fight with. You will see business partnership established among the IT services companies (eg. Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Satyam ...) to meet the cost and resource availability issues.