Rising Needs of the e-Empowered Employee Will Shape 2006 ICT Landscape in Asia/Pacific

IDC: The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) spending and growth for the region will be fuelled largely by the surge of the e-Empowered Employee (EEE). The e-empowered employee is increasingly able to harness technology to be more productive and responsive, Work takes place anywhere, anytime, anyplace. It's moving out of the traditional workstation into homes, hotels, airport lounges and taxis. Workspace boundaries are diminishing as the employee is no longer tied to an office location. 9 to 5 work hours make way for 24/7 operations.. Technology roadmaps will not only be determined by how it can be applied to enhance productivity, but also how it can support an always-connected, knowledge-driven and rapidly shrinking global economic society.

Successful companies will be those which can rise to the challenge and capitalize on the technology opportunities further enable by the e-empowered employee – coming up with innovative strategies and delivery models that are adapted to market dynamics and optimizing the employee’s contribution to the organization’s value chain. It has direct impact on organizational efficiency, access to real-time information, quicker time-to-market and the ability of businesses to react to dynamic market conditions.

For 2006 spending on telecommunications services will grow at 8%, exceeding US$175 billion for Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan). IT spending in APEJ will grow at 9% to exceed US$110 billion, with China and India accounting for 64% of the region’s incremental market value. The economic outlook for 2006 is healthy, despite continued global political, health, and environmental uncertainties. This, combined with the relentless pursuit of enterprises and their employees to be more competitive, bodes well for the ICT industry in the region.

1. Wireless content packages keep consumer spending on the boil

ICT Spending in APeJ is expected to grow by 30% in 2006 from US$9 billion to US$12 billion. The combined wireless content industry, which encompasses games, music, ring tones, video and TV, will be fuelled by the proliferation of content and feature rich applications that service providers can offer in the entertainment space, together with cost-saving services bundled with broadband access.

2. The Skype factor and consumer VoIP

The consumer VoIP market continues to demonstrate healthy growth, with non-traditional operators moving into this space like the eBay purchase of Skype, and Yahoo and Microsoft purchasing VoIP service providers and Google launching its own VoIP software Google Talk. VoIP adoption in the enterprise space will grow as service operators look into replicating the consumer experience from the home to the office, by making available low-cost, integrated voice, data and video conferencing solutions at work.

3. Increased convergence leads to overwhelming consumer choice

Users are becoming more tech-savvy, and mobile devices are becoming “smarter”. 15 million converged devices will be shipped in 2006 across APEJ, reflecting a growth of 24% over 2005 shipments.

More: Asia/Pacific Predictions for 2006, Publ 20051212