Deloitte’s 2012 TMT Top 10

1. Big Data gets bigger. Analytics is yesterday's news. Big data takes number crunching out of its traditional homes in government and big business and plants it squarely in the consumer space. Look for companies to increasingly skim data from us as we surf, shop, tweet and befriend each other on our online and mobile devices. The resulting treasure trove of knowledge will help vendors build better, more customized consumer experiences.

2. Near-Field Communications gets nearer. Most retailers won't be ready to use the NFC chips in the latest BlackBerry and Android devices and other smartphones to process payments until 2013 or 2014, but that doesn't mean this nifty new hardware can't find some alternate use in the meantime. From electronic business cards and building access to secure computer logins, gaming and replacing those QR codes, NFC chips will offer a growing range of capabilities through the coming year.

3. Tablets go multiple. If you've already got an iPad, make room for another tablet this year. Multiple-tablet households are rapidly becoming the norm as these devices continue to multiply on store shelves and follow us all home.

4. TV goes truly mobile. Sort of. Forget watching live television while on the subway, since you can't hold the antenna still, anyway. Today's savvy mobile commuters sync content to their smartphones and tablets the night before, then watch it on the way into work.

5. Consumers spend. Then spend some more. As food, housing and clothing take up less and less of the average household budget, consumers are increasingly buying more tech goodies to establish a unique sense of digital style. They'll even skimp on vacations to afford the latest gadgets.

6. Online ads grow up. No longer content to linger in conventional advertising's shadow, online branding is emerging in its own right. While overall ad spending will rise only 5 percent this year, spending on online branding will double to $20 billion. All that money will help social media-savvy agencies build digital marketing campaigns that raise relationship branding to the next level — and make annoying ads a thing of the past. Hopefully.

7. We remain stuck to our schedules. For all the promise of an on-demand, time-shifting, consumer-controlled viewer experience, we still like to watch in real-time: 95 percent of us watch shows live or within 24 hours of their initial broadcast. Social media makes the collective experience — like live-tweeting the Oscars — too good to pass up.

8. Hard disks hit hard times. Floods last autumn devastated the concentrated region in Thailand that's home to almost half of the world's hard disk production, hitting supply chains and driving up prices. By the end of 2012 it might not matter, as laptops and other mobile devices continue to transition to solid state drives. In 2009, 99 percent of laptops had hard drives. That drops to 85 percent by year's end thanks to SSDs. Small devices like tablets, smartphones and media players are almost finished their solid state transition: 90 percent at the end of 2012, up from 20% in 2006.

9. Market research touches your brain. From the world of science fiction, Deloitte expects marketers to increasingly use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, an offshoot of the MRI used in more traditional medical settings, to measure consumers' emotional responses. We won't be sprouting electrodes on our heads tomorrow, but science could become more prevalent in market research this year.

10. Data caps get tighter. Unlimited wireless data plans virtually disappeared in 2011, and expect unlimited broadband to vanish in 2012, as well. Spiking demand — all those YouTube viewings consume major bandwidth, after all — is putting pressure on carriers and Internet service providers to balance performance and revenue. The bottom line: more metered services for us all in 2012, whether we like it or not.

Carmi Levy is a London, Ont.-based independent technology analyst and journalist. The opinions expressed are his own. carmilevy@yahoo.ca