Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Large technology-related businesses are well-versed in cloud computing. But, as I pointed out in a post last month, most consumers are unfamiliar with the concept. It turns out that many small and medium size businesses (SMBs), which represent a big market for cloud computing vendors, need some education as well.

After severely curtailing the corporate travel budget, many businesses are in no rush to fund requests for trips to visit clients or attend conferences. Instead, businesses and government agencies are turning to the latest technology to satisfy meeting needs. This new interest in video conferencing is expected to increase this year and IT vendors will be marketing a variety of solutions.

In most years, paid search spending drops in the first quarter after marketers wrap up their all-important fourth quarter. And this has been especially true in the high-tech and consumer electronics categories. But newly released data from Covario, based on spending patterns of its clients, paints a different picture for 2011.

Now that consumers are using the digital format for everything from music to photos to magazine content, they will be looking to access the data anywhere, from any kind of device. Currently, not all devices and data formats are compatible. B2B operators have more experience with this dilemma and many of them have begun shifting their content to the cloud. But most consumers are unaware of the benefits of this option which means marketers have some legwork to do.

d-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report Information Security Vendors. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

The traditional personal computer continues to shrink – to about the size of a smartphone. While super-small mobile phones were trendy a couple of years ago, new research shows that consumers want specific functionality on their phones. This functionality requires real estate and smartphone manufacturers are likely planning to release new hardware to keep consumers happy.