Goodbye 2011, Welcome 2012

So, we are at the end of another year. It was marked by some defining trends that have far-reaching consequences. Some of them are events whose fallouts would be huge. Some happened over a period and cannot exactly be attributed to one single event. Some are global phenomenon that affect us. Some are local to India.

Here is a quick list.

• Rise of Tablets: Apple launched iPad2; Samsung joined the bandwagon. And suddenly everyone was realizing they need a tablet. CIOs were seen formulating plans to meet the rising demand from the top bosses as well as from the newer generation to accommodate tablets in their IT access strategy. Suddenly, some realized this can be a good tool for students, if the cost is brought downIT minister Kapil Sibal was one of them. And India saw the launch of Aakash amidst a lot of publicity. At the end of the year, the growing consensus is that they are not going to replace laptops, but will grow as a separate category by themselves.
• Anna and the Power of Social Media: In early 2011, supporters of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare used social media to build a huge campaign online. India Against Corruption has a fan following of more than 5 lakh people. While campaigns such as those against the ragging of Aman Kachroo, Pink Chaddi, and Meter Jam have sensitized people about the power of social media, the Anna movement proved that decisively.
• Rise of Online Retail in India: While it started in 2010, it was in the year 2011 that India became comfortable with buying stuff other than tickets and holiday packages online. Like all micro-innovations, Indian online retailers had to put in place a reliable cash-on-delivery mechanism before it really took off. But even credit card payment took off significantly. VC money flowed in and the segment is on a high at the time of writing. Dataquest was the first to announce the trend in January 2011.
• The Ugly Face of Censorship: While it did not happen and is not likely to happen anytime, a statement by Kapil Sibal, the IT minister asking social media sites to censor user content met with wide and loud protest from all communities. As of now, it is a non-issue.
• Death of Steve Jobs: Death of Apple founder Steve Jobs was not just a sad event, it is likely to affect the way consumer technology moves in the future. While people have started questioning Apples future, many question the future of innovation itself. Two other deathsthose of Dennis Ritchie, creator of C, and John McCarthy, the man who coined the term Artificial Intelligencealso happened in 2011. While their contribution is great, they were out of active work lives.
• Nokia Loses the Top Spot in Smartphones: Nokia, after occupying the top slot ever since the word smartphone was coined, gave in to Samsung. One product that did the wonder for Samsung was the Galaxy Smartphone SII.
• Thailand Floods Exposes VulnerabilityOpportunity for India: If falling rupee was not enough, the floods in Thailand sent the prices of hard disks shooting up. While we are still suffering the fallout of that, it is also an opportunity for India to position itself as a derisking manufacturing destination.

We enter the next year with a lot of caution, but there is no need to panic. A sincere appeal: Please do not back out on your IT plans, only based on hearsay. The 2009 slowdown has shown that those businesses that drastically cut IT investments were not been able to grow after the markets bounced back. Please do not make that mistake. Be cautious, if you have to be. But do not be pessimistic.