Already we’ve reached a point where many of the web services we use everyday are based on streaming technology, where content is not downloaded but is instead fed to users.
Dawson says this will become the norm. Every piece of content you want to enjoy will be able to be streamed through to your computer, saving your storage space and giving you the ability to enjoy it whenever you want.
“We’re seeing the rise of the stream that gives us access to whatever we want whenever we need it. Spotify is obviously a big example of this, and it’s doing so well because people can just participate whenever they want.”
“We’re going to see this increase. Video is going to become even more popular, and you see really interesting things happening in this space, things like Spotify and Turntable.fm, one of the more interesting social ventures here.”
While Dawson says television as a traditional medium won’t die, he says it will be accessed through a wider range of portals than we have now.
“The proportion of people who watch television at the same time and schedule will continue to diminish.”
We all know technology has made working life easier and more flexible, allowing some employees to work remotely, answer emails on the road, and so on.
But Alan Noble suggests in five years, this will become much more prominent than it is right now.
“The idea of working nine to five, if not gone will be nearly gone. It’s going to have a profound impact on the way SMEs and SMBs operate too. It’ll change how they reach their customers, and work with their partners as well.”
iiNet managing director Michael Malone agrees, saying most of his tech support staff work from home already – and it’s a trend he doesn’t mind seeing more of.
“I personally didn’t like doing it when I did it for a while, but some of our staff work far more effectively when they work at home…and the technology we have enables us to do that effectively.”
With the advent of technologies developed by Sony, Apple and Samsung, tablet and smartphone users are able to begin watching something and then transfer it to another device.
But Dawson says that’s going to go even further. Soon, he says, you’ll be able to walk through different rooms in your home and your entertainment will follow you.
It’s all about the customisability of media – being able to completely control your experience.
“There’s a battle going on at the heart of the home entertainment space. One of the questions I’m asking is whether we’ll see a baffling combination of people doing different things and failing, or more integration?”
“I think we’ll see more streamlining, and as this makes its way into the home, it’ll allow you to control it more. Technology like voice control and even motion control, it’ll allow all these different options for you.”
Already we’re seeing much of our content distributed online, whether it’s music, films or even games. Foad Fadaghi says in five years, we can expect much, much more of that to be distributed digitally.
“We will have people in five years who have grown up never buying a CD, never entering a physical store for some goods, never even walked into a travel agent. Digital distribution is growing and will continue to be across more areas.”
There are plenty of issues associated with this, including the fact that as digital distribution grows, we’ll need more storage space for content. As a result, Chris Ride says storage manufacturers will become much, much more powerful.
“Whereas it used to be the processor manufacturers becoming powerful, now we’ll see storage manufacturers become much more important. There is a lack of supply in storage, and people are creating it now.
“Your personal storage will be in the cloud, people will move to 4G networks and even maybe to 5G by then. You won’t worry about having to back up data…but that opens up new issues about security too.”
The IT industry is always changing, but Interactive’s Chris Ride says there may be a few developments over the next few years that cause the industry to shrink, at least in some sectors.
“In the services sector, I think we’re going to see some aggregation. I think people want to deal with local providers, not necessarily overseas controllers.”
“Every small and medium business is going to have an IT director. They need to be managing their cloud provider, handle business processes and the relationship with the IT staff – and all this is different from a chief information officer or chief technology officer.”
“The need for this type of role will become too great to ignore.”
Although this isn’t so much of a technology trend as a consequence of technology, iiNet managing director Michael Malone says it’s likely in five years we’ll see a number of middle-men slip away from the retail chain.
“The supply chain will just get shorter. We’re hearing all the arguments about retailers at the moment, but convenience trumps everything else.”
“The challenge for retailers is price. And the same thing applies for content as well, which is just going to become more available as technology improves.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
