Our experts predict business IT for 2013

Our experts predict business IT for 2013

On Monday we revealed IT experts are predicting that, among other trends, 2013 will be about Mac malware and 3D presentations.

To follow up, we decided to ask two IT Donut contributors what they think this year will bring. Here's what they told us.

You'll be bringing your own device

Bring your own device (or BYOD, for short). Those four words have appeared on this website again and again during the last few months.

It's a trend that's growing and growing, with many experts tipping it for the next 12 months. Regular IT Donut contributor Craig Sharp, from Birmingham IT support firm Abussi, agrees:

"Businesses will be more willing and more technically able to embrace the BYOD trend this year."

"That's partly down to the rise of cloud services that we saw in 2012. These make it easier for businesses to embrace BYOD, because employees can connect to them with their own iPads, laptops and computers, from home and remote locations."

"Companies that decide to give BYOD a try can become more productive and reduce their costs because they don't have to buy so much expensive hardware. Most people have a computer and an increasing number have iPads or other tablets, so why not let them use this equipment to allow more flexible working arrangements?"

"I think this will create a debate about the boundaries of work. When are we working and when are we not? But perhaps that's a piece for this time next year!"

A slow year for Microsoft and laptops

Rob Collins is technical director at Yorkshire Cloud, a firm that provides cloud services to companies from its base in Harrogate. He thinks smaller companies would do well to pay attention to Microsoft's fortunes this year:

"I think Windows 8 adoption will be slow, especially compared to Windows 7. Its interface has been designed to work well on touch screens, but reviews have criticised the way it functions on non-touch screen computers, which is what most companies have at the moment."

"Likewise, Microsoft's Surface tablet will be a lukewarm success. It's hard to see it mounting much of a challenge to the iPad, and I think people will dislike the current model because it runs a cut-down version of Windows."

"Surface Pro should be available soon. That'll run the full version of Windows, but even if it appeals more to businesses, I suspect most employees will still prefer to use iPads."

"At the other end of the market, we'll see a surge of low cost, high performance tablets going on sale. Many of these will run Google's Android operating system. These will seriously erode laptop sales."

That's what our experts think. But what IT will you be paying attention to in 2013?

• 3D PowerPoint? 2013, you'll have to do better than that
• See our predictions from a year ago. How did we do?