Stratecast, a division of the business research & consulting firm, Frost & Sullivan released its technology predictions for 2009.

The team developed its views on current and future trends in specific areas of research focus where they examine the trend and its implications on the industry and market participants.

Some of the noteworthy predictions include:

“The migration to VoIP and SIP will continue despite the economic downturn. That die is cast: new telephony equipment is VoIP-based and expertise in managing traditional voice systems is fading from the enterprise by attrition. It is becoming more expensive to resist VoIP than to embrace it.

The application is king. As enterprises increasingly depend on remote and bandwidth- rich applications, total “application performance” will supersede standalone “network performance” metrics. CSPs will offer “application-aware” network services and management tools, and end-to-end SLAs will become standard.”

Video (unicast and multicast) network infrastructure will continue to be enhanced through faster channel changes, integration with mobility, and feature enhancement through mobile devices.

Advertising will be a battleground

While aggregate ad spending is likely to decrease 5 percent to 10 percent year over year, IPTV operators, MSOs, and mobile operators will all duke it out for pieces of this shrinking pie. The mobile and IPTV operators are relative upstarts, for whom advertising revenue will be incremental to traditional revenue streams. The MSOs will be playing defense.

Consumer Spending Shifts

Consumers will not only cutback as a result of the recession, but consumers will reallocate scarce budgets. Consumer spending on entertainment will shift from out-of-home categories like amusement parks and theaters to in-home categories like video rentals. Consumers will also reallocate telecommunications budgets, accelerating POTS erosion. Consumers will tighten belts when it comes to monthly fees.”

It will be interesting to see how these predictions play out in the market, so I look forward to reviewing these forecasts later in the year.