Consultancy Deloitte Jan. 18 celebrated the tenth anniversary of its predictions, which it launched in 2001 with 10 predictions about mobile telephony. The forecast has evolved to cover technology, telecommunications and media. Deloitte employs 10,000 services professionals who have their fingers on the pulse of these sectors. These pros whip up a list of trends they see for each New Year. Then, Deloitte taps its so-called "second network" of clients, who are interviewed by the service pros for insights into the top trends. The trends share a common theme, which the consultancy characterizes as such: "Deloitte sees a 2011 where consumers and enterprises will be dealing with diversity in hardware-computing platforms, in software operating systems and in wireless-network access." Another way to put it is that the influx of WiFi and 3G-powered smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and Google Android handsets, as well as tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad and its litany of Android-based counterparts flooding the market, are presenting IT managers with more choices and more management challenges. For example, CIOs must be wary of when and how to allow these machines to tap into cloud-computing services. That’s the chief theme in the enterprise that eWEEK sees for 2011. eWEEK spotlights 10 of Deloitte’s trends in this slideshow. – …
