Industry’s rapid transition to “The 3rd Platform”—a combination of mobile, cloud, Big Data, and social—will continue to energize technological change in 2015, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Growth in cloud services, alternative payment systems, and location-based marketing will remain strong, posits the research company in its top 10 predictions for the information and telecommunications industry.
Mobile app downloads is one area that will begin to slow in 2015, but introductions of enterprise apps will double. Sales of smartphones and tablets will close in on half a trillion dollars, with Chinese vendors capturing a significant share of the market. New wearables options will soar; their sales will not, IDC forecasts.
Some other IDC predictions of note to direct marketers:
- The Chinese consumer market will become hard to ignore for global players. It will comprise about one third of all online shoppers, who will help lift domestic digital presences such as Alibaba and Baidu to new prominence on the world scene.
- Big Data will just keep getting bigger. Spending on data-related software, hardware, and services will hit $125 billion. Rich media analytics surrounding video and audio campaigns will drive more Big Data projects, and Data as a Service (DaaS) offerings will grow in number and importance.
- With sales approaching $120 billion, cloud services will continue to dominate headlines. Software as a Service (SaaS) providers will increase their Platform as a Service (PaaS) options and fight each other over app developers. “Cloud is where we expect to see partnerships forming among strange bedfellows, such as Facebook with Microsoft and/or IBM,” says IDC SVP and Chief Analyst Frank Gens.
IDC also envisions a 2015 of expansion in predictive analytics and the Internet of Things, plus a growing focus on data supply chains. “We’ll see the 3rd Platform finally reach massive scale,” Gens says.
