What Were the Top Tech Highlights 2012?
December 28, 2012
Hi everyone! As 2012 winds down, I wanted to reflect on the some of the top tech highlights I’ve noticed this year.
1) The era of the PC as our only connection to the Internet is slowly waning
It’s not to say I think the PC is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. But as I mentioned in my blog about Microsoft and the Surface, smartphones and tablets are a disruptive innovator.
A recent Forrester Study highlighted some key trends in how people are connected to the internet:
- 84% of US adults use the internet daily
- 50% use Smartphones and 19% use tablets
- 18-23 year-olds are the most active social media users
- Gen X’ers spend the most money shopping online
The age of consumers using multiple devices is here. And software companies are doing their best to offer a unified experience across all of these devices. I’ve discussed Microsoft’s gamble with Windows 8 at length, but the move towards tablets and smartphones has implications for more than just the B2C space.
If you are a B2B marketer, you will need to take Tablets and Smartphones into account when designing your outreach programs. For example, with people increasingly relying on their smartphones for email, outreach emails will need to be concise and contain a simple attention grabbing subject.
Websites will need to be tailored to Tablet and Mobile devices. In essence, you will want to simplify your message so your value proposition is clearly conveyed in a mobile device setting.
2) The Cloud is becoming more prominent in the market
If you’re a B2B marketer in the SaaS space you already know this. But the public and many people in Enterprise are just starting to look into the Cloud as a solution for their needs. Much of what they know about the Cloud comes from daily interactions via Apple’s iCloud, Dropbox, and popular apps like Spotify.
Given the public’s awareness of the Cloud is in its nascent stages, as marketers you have an opportunity to educate them on what the Cloud is, how it can help them, and why it will cost less.
At the same time, you will need to keep attuned to what the mainstream media is reporting about the Cloud. Over Christmas, Netflix went down to the dismay of many. Interestingly, in their press release, Netflix pointedly blamed Amazon Web Services for the outage. This is only one example, but it goes to show the impact this style of reporting can have on a potential economic buyer. While your user buyer is likely well acquainted with the Cloud and the benefits, an economic buyer might not as aware.
3) Economic and regulatory pressures will continue to open up more opportunities for SaaS space
In my buyer research at Openview I’ve found a consistent pattern in the interviews I’ve conducted. Economic and user buyers are turning to the Cloud for potential cost savings and the ability to access their resources on demand. In addition, buyers who are operating in heavily regulated environments see the Cloud as a critical tool to deal with compliance regulations and simplify their operations.