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Gartner Report Outlines Six Disruptive Trends in ITTMCnet Associate Editor
A new study by Gartner Inc. predicts that 30 percent of U.S. households will use only cellular or Internet telephony by the year 2010.
According to Gartner’s “Top Predictions for 2006 and Beyond,” “growth in traditional wired voice connections will slow in North America, Western Europe and other developed markets as more people dedicate fixed phone lines to DSL links and switch to cellular or Internet telephony.”
“U.S. consumers are just beginning to add voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to their range of telephony options, but as they get more comfortable with the technology, and as VoIP services improve, they will start to abandon traditional phones,” a press release concerning the new study states. “Mobile communications will remain the preference of developing countries, and as a result, wireless links will represent 99 percent of the world’s new voice connections in 2009.” Ken Dulaney, vice president and analyst at Gartner, said in the press release that after 125 years, plain old telephone service “is now on the decline in the U.S.”
“Top Predictions for 2006 and Beyond” is part of a series of reports, called “Gartner Predicts,” to be released over the next year. The nearly 50 reports included in the series discuss the major trends that will affect IT users, vendors and most industries in 2006 and beyond.
“Top Predictions for 2006 and Beyond” focuses on six IT industry trends that Gartner expects will cause “significant disruption and drive opportunity for business and the IT industry …”
Other trends outlined in the study include:
“Top Predictions for 2006 and Beyond” can be accessed on the company’s website at www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=487286.
“These six IT trends are expected to drive market growth, representing revenue opportunities for both incumbents and new market entrants in each space,” said Daryl Plummer, group vice president and chief Gartner Fellow, in the press release. “To catch the waves of change at their early stages, vendors, users and investors in technology will need to look outside their industries to find early adopters that provide inspiration for how these trends translate into business value.”
Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.
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