5 Hot Trends to watch in 2012

It is at the point of the year​ when market experts and watchers, silicon valley VCs alike, put forth their points of view on what could be the top and hot trends to look out for in the upcoming year.  Cloud, social and mobility are the easy 3 to mouth out and these will indeed be the key drivers in enabling both existing and new industry sectors to expand into new growth areas.






And so, without further ado, here are my pick (some read, some my added views) on 5 hot trends to watch for in 2012.

(1) EdTech

The Education industry has never been hotter. Every market and government (emerging, mature markets alike) are looking to leverage the pervasive computing devices like smartphones and tablets and bringing the education journey into the classroom and beyond. eBooks (children storybooks, self-improvement books), eTextbooks, eAssessments etc are in the markets and will take to the next level of growth in 2012 with increased interactivity and rich media to attract the new generation of learning minds.


(2) Data Science

In a market research conducted by MasterCard on Singaporeans recently, Internet surfing came in 3rd amongst the top fav activities of Singaporeans, behind eating (dining) and shopping.

Whenever our consumer fires up their browser and visits our sites or others, there're a huge load of behavioral data which could be harnessed and studied for our profiling and future use.


(3) Collaborative Consumption

With the price of cars going through the roof, and the rental car market coming up, will there be an opportunity for a peer to peer time-sharing opportunity here in Singapore? In the US, ZipCar appears to be successful. Perhaps apps or content rental could come into the fore as consumers and small enterprises are getting used to cloud-based services and move on to new experiences with other contents and media.


(4) Content grows more pervasive, being available online/offline

Global players like Google are looking to enter both emerging and their mature markets with solutions which cater to all segments. Take for instance Google Books, which will now be also availed offline. I see a not too distant future when Google Maps will be availed as a hybrid (online and offline) solutions.


(5) Merchants grow out of daily deals and look for tangible business models and relationship with their customers

Loyalty cards companies like Perx are looking to get a piece of the market being thrown away by the Groupons of the world who have sown disillusionment into a large number of disgruntled merchants who do not see repeat customers coming and revenue growing, after the daily deals effect have worn off.

Could loyalty card companies like Perx or social content feed marketing companies like Taggo or companies who could market and promote time or inventory limited offers (much like how airlines deal with revenue management), form the next wave to watch out for in terms of merchant e-commmerce?

What are your top trends for 2012?


Happy 2012 in advance and look forward to hear from you.

Nelson Wee
or engage with me at @nelsonwee

References:
Silicon Valley VCs predict top trends for 2012

Cloud Computing - A Primer

"Cloud computing" buzz is everywhere.  Google it.  Bing it.  Go to Twitter.  Go to Link-in.  Heck, go try  Facebook and you will  find fan pages around cloud computing!

According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is defined as "Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility."  With a web browser, anytime, anywhere, you could access applications which link up your workforce and organisational workflows.  And the beauty of it?  Pay as you use.  With the economy in its current shape, the metered pay as you use model makes perfect business financial sense.  

Now take a tour round with this "Cloud Computing Plain and Simple" video.

Tinkernut also has a nice tutorial around "Basic Cloud Computing".  See the video below.

Market Players
There are also many different players in the cloud computing marketspace under 3 broad categories.
1. Software (example: Google Apps, Salesforce.com) - using your apps elsewhere
2. Platform (example: Microsoft's Azure) - building your apps elsewhere
3. Infrastructure (example: Amazon EC2) - hosting your solution elsewhere

In the region, we also have regional consortiums like Alatum which was formed by the Singtel group and leading SaaS and technology partners who will deliver software, computing power and storage as a pay-per-use, on-demand, on-line services to customers.

Conclusions
Cloud computing is not a new breakthrough in today's markets. It has been around ever since we have larger broadband pipes, faster internet and computing speeds and the inherent need for businesses, especially now more so, to scale up in the global markets, whilst maintaining a tight rein on costs.

There is no one-size-fits-all cloud computing solution. And there are evident risks to contend with in terms of data security and integrity, which comes from composing enterprise functionality from disparate services that are all integrated into the platforms and infrastructure of external service providers. Strong governance, vendor management and contract definition through SLAs will be required to ensure accountability, tracing issues to resolutions and most important of all, that the business benefits are realised by the investing organisations. And so, I really like the Burton Group's definition of "cloud computing" as:
The set of disciplines, technologies, and business models used to deliver appropriately managed IT capabilities as a service.

I would like to conclude with the following questions, which are begging for follow up conversations.
- What and how have your experiences with cloud computing been?
- Do you have any case studies you could share? 
- Are there any implications from enterprise social media tools like Yammer, Salesforce.com Chatter, Microsoft's OfficeTalk in organisations as organisations move into cloud computing? 
- How about mobile access to cloud computing tools?

In the meantime, do check out the following references for more on cloud computing:
1. Cloud Computing in Plain English Video (in 3 mins)
2. Burton's Group videos on Cloud Computing
3. Microsoft's "What is Windows Azure"
4. Salesforce.com: What is Cloud Computing?
5. Cloud Services: Expand on Demand [newly added 6-March-2012] - jargon-free cloud marketing copy

Later,
Nelson Wee
or see you @nelsonwee

Photo credit: DavidErickson / Foter.com / CC BY-NC