Slimmer wallets limit reach of latest technology tools

'Mobile Internet Revolution'; Innovation coming at rapid pace, but pricing an issue

Duncan Stewart, Director of Research for Deloitte Canada and co-author of the global TMT Predictions, at Flames Central Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

Photograph by: Stuart Gradon, Calgary Herald

In the ever-changing world of technology, there remains one constant: people want more of what's out there. They want more data, more access and more available outlets.
The big difference this year is that people won't be willing to pay for the electronic goodies as the aftermath of the recession continues to be felt.
"Canadians and Canadian companies are at the front lines of the battle between demand for data and the realities of pricing," Duncan Stewart, director of Deloitte Canada Research, said Tuesday.
Unveiling the accounting agency's top technology, media and telecommunications trends for 2010, Stewart noted the tension between shallower pockets and the desire for data is driving techies to opt for less-than-perfect innovations.
"This theme of innovative disruption is changing both the telecom and the media worlds. At the same time as cloud computing is set to take off in 2010 -- disrupting the hardware and software industries -- growth in online advertising is re-accelerating, further disrupting the world of traditional media advertising," he said.
The top 10 most significant innovations to impact Canada this year include eBooks and net tablets, as well as pay walls and micropayments to support online publications.
Clean technologies, except for solar, make a comeback, corporations will reinvest in computers and mobile phones to satisfy employee demand, while at the same time reducing network reliability standards to reduce costs. Cloud computing, competition on wireless promoting "all you can eat" data plans, and short-term quick fixes to deal with increased data traffic jams are also in store for the year.
Last but not least, the shift to online advertising becomes more selective, but continues in 2010.
"We may not have been the first country in the world to get the iPhone or the Amazon Kindle Reader," Stewart said, "but our companies, our people and our regulators are facilitating the mobile Internet revolution and changing the ways that technology, media and telecommunications are bought, sold and used."
However, on an international scale, Canada got failing marks in innovation, ranking 14th among 17 industrialized nations for its ability to turn knowledge into money-making products and services.
In a report from the Conference Board of Canada, this country ranked ahead only of Australia, Italy and Norway for innovation.
"The biggest challenge that we're facing is to turn some of the great ideas that we have into products that we can sell on the global market," said Gilles Rheaume, the Conference Board's vice-president of public policy. "While we're doing some great research and development at the university level -- and it's an important factor -- it's not sufficient."
The Conference Board said countries that scored higher than Canada in innovation spend more on science and technology, and also have public policies that drive innovation supply and demand.
Canada was dead last in the technology-exchange category, which measures "the flow of technological know-how and technological services into and out of a country as a share of GDP."