The Deloitte office in Zagreb, in partnership with the business weekly Leader, held on January 17 a conference on trends in technology, media and telecommunications in 2012.

The conference presented Deloitte's global survey on trends in telecommunications, media and technology that can be expected this year, and a significant review on the topic by Dejan Ljuština, the director of the Department of Management Consulting at Deloitte, thus joining Zagreb the global network of cities, in which the Deloitte's survey was presented at the same time.

Deloitte predicts the growth of global sales of consumer’s electronics, despite the weak economic announcements for 2012, because consumers perceive it as a very good ratio of price and value. The Near Field Communication technology that allows rapid exchange of data at short distances wirelessly will experience further growth, and by the end of the year, it is expected to reach some 200 million users.

Tablet devices will in 2012 continue its strong expansion, both in the global market and in our region, and this year private customers, who already own a tablet PC, will buy nearly 5 percent of the total sales of tablet PCs. By the end of this year, there will be 500 million smart phones offered at the retail price of 100 USD that will support basic functions and reduced data exchange capabilities. However, due to the falling prices of components, these devices will quickly improve and in time, they will be able to include advanced technology to the same price. 

Managing of large amounts of data will become a major global challenge. It is expected that by the end of 2012, there will be more than 90 percent of companies from the Fortune500 list to launch the initiative of managing a large amount of data. Deloitte also predicts that the mobile devices will be used even more for watching recorded TV contents on trips or in public transportation. It is also predicted that the majority of users will mainly use short-range wireless links for data transmission, so in 2012, about one per cent of data will be transmitted directly, between devices. Regarding the fixed networks capacities, Delloite predicts that data transmission with no limits will be history, and a limit will be set at 100 to 250GB that is expected to meet the needs of some 99 percent of users. In 2012, the advertisers will pay even more attention to the neuromarketing that monitors brain activities during exposure to advertisements, with an aim of creating more successful campaigns.

The round table on future development of TMT sector (technology, marketing and telecommunications) in Croatia and the region, and on the key issues that this sector is faced with, gathered together key players in the given industry.

Participants of the round table were Gordana Kovačević MSc, president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Ivica Mudrinić, CEO of T-HT, M. Pejković, CEO of VIPnet and Julian Ogrin, CEO of Tele2, with the moderators Dejan Ljustina, a director at Deloitte Business Consulting and Miodrag šajatović, editor in chief of Lider.

The round table participants agreed that the fee of six percent to the mobile telephony services was a major burden for the whole industry and discouraged further investments, which was reflected with suppliers as well as in a number of related industries. They underlined the need of a clear vision and strategy in the ICT sector, and the quality measures at the tactical level that will support the implementation of the strategy.

During the round table discussion Gordana Kovačević, MSc stressed:
“The importance of ICT sector was early recognized by the best world economies that supported its development, bringing benfits for business, life of citizens and a society as a whole on various levels. What is required is the realization of the Strategy Implementation Plan for the broadband access evenly in all areas of Croatia. The access to infrastructure is also of importance in various Croatian regions, villages and on islands, as well. A quality access enables various services that are essential for citizens, such as e-learning, m-health, and the expanding of the broadband access contributes to GDP growth and work workforce“.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla president pointed out that technological companies invested a lot into research and development activities: Ericsson annual investments into research and development amount to more than a billion of US$, and Ericsson Nikola Tesla to more than 300 million kunas. So, it is obvious that it is important to achieve the return of these huge investments. Ericsson vision is a networked society, in which all that benefits from networking, will be networked, thus creating unlimited opportunities for innovations, but also the need for continued investments in new knowledge, solutions, products and services. This will result in interconnection of various branches of industry, and benefits will be obvious in the filed of public administration, traffic, safety, healthcare, education. As of particular moves Gordana Kovačević, MSc, pointed out that Croatia should increase investments in research and development and encourage high education, but should decrease the share of burden by taxes and deductions imposed to work, thus making ICT sector more competitive in the international competition, and Croatia more attractive to foreign investments. It should also enable access to broadband Internet as a fundamental civil right – Technology available to all, and define the strategic ICT projects at the state level, and finally, it should strongly encourage the development of ICT solutions, products and services with references at the domestic market.

Company Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla