New technologies to transform not only everyday, but save lives in 2017. That was the press release heading for this year’s Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions. “Not only will machine learning revolutionize how we conduct simple tasks through our mobile devices, but it will also improve our safety through platforms such as autonomous vehicles, disaster response, and make us more resilient to cyberattacks,” according to Deloitte.

Gaze into the future with Deloitte’s Top 10 Predictions for 2017:

1. A Braking News Story – Cars with automatic emergency braking (AEB) will represent almost 100 percent of all new cars sold in 2022 in the U.S., marking the biggest auto safety breakthrough since the seatbelt. “This year will mark the beginning of a significant uptake in automatic braking technologies – a trend with an unparalleled potential effect – saving lives,” said Deloitte’s Duncan Stewart.
2. Rise of the Machines – Over 300 million smartphones, or more than a fifth of units sold in 2017, will have on-board machine-learning capability, allowing them to perform important tasks even when network connectivity is unavailable. Over time, these capabilities are also likely to be found in tens of millions (or more) of drones, tablets, cars, virtual or augmented reality devices, medical tools, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and unforeseen new technologies.
3. Biometric Security Reaches the Billions – More than one billion fingerprint devices will be on the market in 2017. That’s going to be 10-trillion-plus fingerprints read for the year, but who’s counting? Just think, a world where you’re hack-proof, with no more passwords, PINs, or key fobs to remember.
4. The Final Frontier for Digital Navigation is Indoors – Within five years, a quarter of all digital navigation will be used indoors, providing directions with accuracy to within a few metres. Massive for retailers!
5. Have We Reached Peak Tablet? – 2017 sales of tablets will be fewer than 160 million units, down about 10 percent from the 178 million units sold in 2016. Not a precipitous decline, but it does suggest we’ve passed peak demand for these devices.
6. 5G: A Revolution in Evolution, Even in 2017 – Significant steps toward fifth generation, or 5G, wireless networks will be launched this year. Soon, you’ll be able to upload those selfies faster than ever! Speeds could reach multiple GB/s, meaning you could download the new Star Wars in seconds.
7. TV Advertising to Remain Flat – U.S. TV advertising revenue in 2017 will be even with 2016. Not itself necessarily the stuff of great television drama, but for an industry widely to be thought to be on the same sharply negative trend as other traditional media, flat is the new up.
8. Vinyl Approaches Billion-Dollar Sales – In 2017 vinyl will continue its resurgence, approaching US$1 billion globally in revenues for all vinyl related revenues. However, vinyl is unlikely to ever be music’s major growth or profit engine, with the future of music squarely focused on digital.
9. Cyberattacks enter the Terabit Era – Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, a form of cyberattack, will become larger in scale, harder to mitigate, and more frequent. As more and more IoT devices come online, hackers will look to exploit their vulnerabilities, so this will be an area on which to keep a careful eye.
10. IT-as-a-Service to become 35% of IT spend – By the end of 2018, Deloitte predicts that spending on IT-as-a-Service for data centers, software, and services will surpass US$547 billion worldwide, up from US$361 billion in 2016.

As always, Deloitte provides us with a fascinating look into the future, while maintaining a pretty accurate and robust scorecard from past predictions. For a deeper dive into this year’s TMT Predictions, click on the link below…

Michael

Michael Chase, CMO
St. Joseph Communications

#MondayMashup > http://stjoseph.com/deloitte-2017-tmt-predictions/