Looking ahead at 2009 I offer a few amazing predictions almost certain to be 100% dead certain:1. A leading system supplier will announce a new product offering that will be heralded in its accompanying press release as "the most advanced solution of its kind" according to a semi-known analyst from a well-known industry research firm. In the same release an executive for the announcing company will also be quoted as saying that the new product will cut expenses, increase productivity, and reduce carbon emissions. The executive's photo will be included in the press package, but never used in any published story
2. Same survey also reveals that most customers may or may not get involved with Cloud Computing in the near or far future.
3. An unknown start-up company will be acquired by Cisco Systems, Microsoft, HP, or some other market leader for a significant sum of money. The acquisition will be folded into the larger company and never heard of again.
4. A customer will replace their aging PBX system with an open source IP telephony system solution to save money and/or have their in-house programmers write their own applications software code. Six months later the company will quietly replace the system with one from an established system supplier, because the vendor who sold, installed, and maintained the open source solution went out of business and no one is available who knows how to diagnose and repair system errors and problems.
5. Attendance at industry trade shows will be adversely affected by the economy, although VoiceCon attendance in Orlando will increase compared to last year, because it's the one conference customers and vendors cannot afford to miss. Allan Sulkin's IP telephony system RFP tutorial once again receives best attendee reviews and he receives a significant cash bonus from TechWeb for his efforts.
