According to a Deloitte study identifying the top 10 trends in technology, media and telecommunications for 2006, search engines are poised to displace e-mail as the most used digital application, in large part due to their rising functionality, expanding volume of searchable data and higher-speed connectivity.
Charted No. 1 on the list, “Googlemania,” as the study calls it, is the increasing need for search engines as a means of bringing order to the overwhelming mass of digital data created by companies and individuals.
Some predict the volume of digital content will be up to 20 billion gigabytes in 2006 alone, according to the study.
Garry Foster, national director of technology, media and telecommunications at Deloitte, said the advent of search engines being built into new technologies is a growth opportunity for the Canadian channel.
“There’s going to be a lot of imperatives for consumers to start thinking about changing their hardware which will drive things through the channel,” he said.
And while the scope of searches is still limited to text-based key words, Deloitte predicts it will expand to include digital data held on devices like PCs, mobile phones, digital cameras and personal video recorders (PVRs).
Another tidal wave the channel needs to be prepared for, said Foster, is voice over IP. “VoIP will have an impact on a lot of service providers and it’s going to be tough for the telcos to service everybody,” he said.
Although VoIP won’t largely hit in 2006, Foster added “I think it’s still in the middle of the ocean but we’re getting ripples as a lot of people are starting to convert.”
But when the tidal wave does hit, Foster said it’s going to be difficult for the telcos to provision small businesses. That’s when they’re going to look for partners.
Dave Walsh, a channel marketing expert, sees the continued convergence of IT and information communication technology (ICT) driving opportunities in the VoIP marketplace.
“Resellers are going to have to be a combination of the ICT provider and the traditional IT reseller,” said Walsh.
The convergence of IT and consumer electronics is another rapidly growing area for the channel, he added.
Companies like HP, Intel and Microsoft are starting to bridge the two schools together, Walsh added.
Be prepared for the convergence of “those integrators and installers that do a phenomenal job with CE — distributed audio, video through cables — and those home and SOHO resellers that do a great job with network file sharing, wireless wired networks.”
