Last week, I looked back at the 10 most impactful telecom advances of the last decade.  In this blog, I will look forward and make some predictions for what 2011 holds.   And then to differentiate myself, in one year’s time, I’ll score myself and see if I got anything remotely right!

1.  Since the mobile data trends will continue unabated (I mean when everyone has an iPad, they’ll be using it, right?!), and since this means even more traffic congestion, it will become more of an everyday occurrence that people find the benefit and joys of using WiFi offload instead of utilizing the 3G data path.

2.  The last all-TDM PBX will ship!  With the all-IP “office communications hubs” such as Microsoft Lync, and with even the hybrid TDM/IP PBXs expected to start declining, the last one will ship.  And as a bonus note, Microsoft will actually keep the name of Lync for at least 2011, and maybe in 2012 in the blync of an eye, they’ll change it again.

3.  iPads will overrun the enterprise, even though outside of being a bigger email reader, they  really aren’t the greatest office tool.

4.  Consumers will accept video advertising to their mobile devices, just as they accept advertising on their TV.  It will no longer be seen as an intrusion.  Led by the over-the-top service providers such as Google and Facebook, this will become “natural.”

5.  Cloud Computing will drop down out of the hype cycle, but it will continue its steady growth.  Known in the past by other names such as ASPs and Hosting, cloud computing sounds cooler and gets some press – in fact it now has its own TV commercials in the US.  Some other thing will get hyped and move into superhype mode as cloud computing migrates into the background to begin its real growth forward.