With 2012 coming to a close, many predictions for 2013 are being made. For example, according to Egnyte CEO, Vineet Jain, the cloud market will begin backing away from hybrid offerings in the year to come as the market matures. Meanwhile, Analysys Mason has put forth its predictions for the year ahead in the telecommunications industry.

First of all, the research firm sees LTE becoming a reality in more countries , but the high-speed data technology will still have "limited economic impact" in 2013. Countries in Europe and Latin America, as well as some in Southeast Asia via the Asia-Pacific band plan, are likely to see LTE rollout in the upcoming year, while developed countries like South Korea will deploy LTE-A. That said, premium pricing on LTE will hurt its growth.

As new network technologies emerge, so too will legacy technologies be phased out in what is referred to as 'the big switch-off,' which includes legacy mobile infrastructure, copper networks and PSTN for fixed operators.


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IP messaging will continue to play a major role in 2013, with social media giants, such as Facebook, making moves in response to RCS-e and telco-OTT services. Meanwhile, operators will need to figure out how to handle VoLTE, as there is no clear vision yet on how voice services should evolve in terms of LTE delivery.

Smartphones will of course play a major role, but while the market for these devices will continue to grow, the growth will be much slower than recent years, with the growth rate declining to 20 percent in 2013, compared to 29 percent in 2012. Android and iOS are expected to continue leading the market, while Apple's tablet dominance is expected to decline as the iPad slips below 50 percent market share.

Furthermore, as smartphone prices continue to drop, more operators may begin launching multidevice subscription plans.

While network operators in developed markets will obviously have their hands full in 2013, emerging markets will have plenty to contend with as their operators come of age.

Check out the full list of Analysys Mason 2013 predictions for greater details on these topics.