From 2011 to 2012: What the tech pros think

As we near the end of 2011, and speed towards 2012, it's time for introspection, calculation and some good old fashioned guesswork. We asked various professionals from various companies across various categories of the tech industry what the highlights of 2011 were and what they are predicting for 2012. Take a look.

2011

2011 has been called many things. The year of the iPad. The year of cloud computing. The year of Android. But stepping out of the industry analysts shoes, we also have to take a look at what the year meant to the people who are the tech industry. Every company has their proud product of 2011 as well as a general outlook on the year. Let’s take a look.

The Year of Windows Phone 

The Windows and Nokia offspring: the Lumia

While Apple and Android battled it out and Symbian slowly slipped away, Microsoft snuck in a game changer of a mobile OS, this year. More importantly, the Nokia and Microsoft partnership proved somewhat successfully for both companies who have been trying to stay healthy in the mobile space. Vishal Gondal, CEO of India Games says, “The Nokia Lumia is the closest anyone has come to being an iPhone competitor. I urge people to go to a Nokia store and try the device”. Microsoft, obviously proud of their baby has said that the platform is poised for success. Chakrapani GK, Head of the Consumer Channels Group, Microsoft Corp India has said, “By 2015, leading analysts, IDC and Gartner have forecasted Windows Phone to be among the Top 3 mobile platforms globally.”

The Year of the Tablet

Even though the original iPad was launched in 2010, the 2011 saw the effect the iPad 2 had on the tech industry. Most notably the gaming industry. Gondal of IndiaGames says, “The launch of the iPad 2 was very exciting. The console is a dying platform, while gaming on the iPad gets more sophisticated”. 

The iPad changed things up this year

But beyond the iPad, which of course, generated the tablet space for tech companies, 2011 is the year of the tablet for the sheer number of tablets that were released. Sunil Lalvani, Director of Enterprise Sales for Research in Motion in India, says, “While the tablet segment in India is in its nascent stage, its utility and popularity will only increase.” RIM’s contribution to the tablet space was the BlackBerry PlayBook. Lalvani adds, “The BlackBerry PlayBook powered by QNX is a multitasking powerhouse that has not only great multimedia functions but also rides on a secure platform that supports enterprise needs as well.”

The BlackBerry PlayBook was RIM's pride

India’s own venture to the international tablet space is Notion Ink with their Adam. The Adam has been available in the country for 6 months and according to Rohan Shravan, CEO of Notion Ink, the second half of this year has been focused on improving the hardware of their product. “In the second half we have been designing not just the looks, but the hardware itself. It might not be of value to the normal eye, but for us its a great deal. Going through every resistor, antennae design, chip selection based on software requirement, layouts based on EMC, and most importantly reconfiguring everything from scratch again, if power expectation doesn't match."

India's venture into the international tablet space: the Adam

The Year of the Digital
We're not talking about zeros and ones, but really, the Internet of everything. Mobile apps were launched, mobile apps that were launched in 2010 gained traction in 2011, mobile gaming and social networking became actual pastimes. App developer Banerjee says, “We have seen some big games (Infinity Blade), lifestyle (Cards), News (Flipboard). Almost every category has something new and brilliant stuff”.
The big Indian game was Ra One, the follow-up to the Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster, developed by UTV IndiaGames. Gondal says, “Ra One had 2.5 million downloads from the Nokia Store and overall, 8 million downloads from other stores. Millions and millions of people are adopting the mobile and social networking.”

Online shopping and e-commerce also became more mainstream in the country. Amit Somani, Chief Products Officer of MakeMyTrip.com  says, “As more and more travelers in India shift to the online medium for planning and booking their travel, 2011 has been a great year for online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip.com.” With the rise in mobile app usage, MakeMyTrip also launched their own mobile app this year. Somani says, “We’re seeing rapidly rising searches on the mobile platform. Connection speeds on the mobile and super complex payment processes mandated by the financial services companies and RBI are key challenges for people to do transactions on the mobile. Even though bookings are slow to take off, the search and browsing behavior on the mobile and tablets is quite heartening to see.”

While people may not be booking plane tickets online, mobile payment has begun peeping its head into the country. Developer, Banerjee says, “In terms of mobile payments, I see a lot of companies investing in this sector, both in India and abroad. Look at Starbucks whose mobile app had processed 26 million transactions since its January 2011 launch. Plus apps like Google Wallet, Square, PayMate (India) reinstated the fact this year that Mobile Payment Method is no longer a myth.”

The cloud is high on the list

Finally, since we’re still on the Internet, 2011 was the year of the cloud, more specifically iCloud. When asked which was the biggest innovation of 2011, Somani of MakeMyTrip answered, “iCloud.” Shishir Singh, Director of Product Marketing, Consumer S&B of Dell, India said, “Cloud computing is at a tipping point and we see it as a big opportunity for growing businesses to keep up with their growth without having to invest in and manage their infrastructure.”

Bonus: Individual pride
Each tech professional that we talked to had a product or two of theirs that they were particularly proud of, this year. For Asus, according to Alex Huang, Country Head of Asus India, it was the Asus Zenbook and the Asus Transformer. For Microsoft, of course, it was Windows Phone 7 and for Research in Motion it was the BlackBerry PlayBook as well as their app store. According to Sunil Lalvani of Dell, “With over 5000 apps and 5 million downloads a day, the BlackBerry App World has become the second most profitable app store globally”.

For Sony, it was their motion controlled gaming system, particularly the PlayStation Move. Atindriya Bose, Country Manager, Sony India said, “Year 2011 has been used to strongly establish & win the Motion sensing gaming space with the PS3 Move platform. This has been a great success internationally as well as in India. We expect the same success to drive the PS3 platform deeper into the Indian family audience who now perceive the PS3 as a complete solution beyond gaming that allows him BluRay functionality, 3D experience and media manager utility with the PS3 hard disc space.”

The PS3 Move was Sony's pride

For some local favourites, Notion Ink’s pride was their Adam tablet of course, and for IndiaGames, it was Ra One.