Yes, it's almost the end of 2014, and as Christmas approaches with a rapidity that can only be described as alarming—is your shopping done yet?—already eyes are beginning to turn to 2015, and many are beginning to wonder just what's going to go on next year. The technology sector, meanwhile, is now different; the future is perhaps felt more fully in a sector at least somewhat based on turning science fiction into science fact. As such, there are already predictions coming out about what we'll see in 2015 as far as tech goes, and IDC (News - Alert) offered up a report offering several such predictions for the New Year.
First, IDC expects spending on telecommunications and information technology (IT) will grow in 2015, which isn't exactly a huge stretch. IDC expects 3.8 percent growth in this field, bringing the total market to over $3.8 trillion total, as the growth of the Internet of Things, mobile and cloud, big data systems and more combine to make plenty of places for businesses to spend and hopefully help fuel expansion efforts.
IDC also expects major mobile growth to come from the phablet front. The hybrid model of phone and tablet is expected to grow 60 percent, to reach 40 percent of IT spending growth, while wearable devices are expected to disappoint. A wrist phone will be shipped, but will ultimately flop according to IDC—an odd prediction as Chinese firms have been offering wrist phones for years—and IDC looks for mobile app downloads to slow, but enterprise mobile app downloads to more than double by the end of the year.
Amazon is expected to continue to lead the cloud, as growth in cloud spending will also increase and new partnerships may arise like Facebook and potentially Microsoft (News - Alert) or IBM. Data-as-a-service (DaaS) will likewise grow and give rise to big data supply operations. Cloud services, meanwhile, will be a huge growth front, and $118 billion is expected to be spent on the cloud as a whole.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will also prove a major growth vector, up 14 percent from 2014 to reach $1.7 trillion, putting it on track to reach $3 trillion just by 2020. A host of devices and purposes for same will encourage spending on this new technology, and there's potential for a new “IoT solutions company” to be generated from several major names in the field coming together to gain better access to the market.
Digital platforms specific to industries will also see huge growth, and security innovations growth will likewise climb as there seems to be no end for the demand for security products at all levels of operation. Finally, 3D printing won't prove to be just another novelty, as IDC expects that over 10 percent of all consumer products will be available as “produce on demand” offerings via 3D printing.
The nature of prediction in general requires time to go by until the accuracy of said predictions can even be commented on, but the IDC projections here look to be a mix of reasonable and outlandish. IoT growth, security growth and cloud growth all make sense, but the idea that wearables would disappoint, given the growing numbers of such devices out there, seems far-fetched. 3D printing, meanwhile, is still proving something of a novelty except for those that can afford models that work in powdered titanium. Still, only time will tell just what's right and 2015 looks like a big year in tech indeed.