GROWTH IN THAILAND EXPECTED TO SLOW DOWN

Research firm says smart devices set to outshine PCs

Thailand's IT market is going to become a mature market in the next couple of years that will no longer enjoy double-digit growth, International Data Corporation (IDC) Thailand, a global research firm, predicted.

The firm also predicted that this year Thailand's IT market is well poised to enter the next phase of personal computing which will see a battle between smart devices and PCs.

This year will be first time that unit shipments of smart devices, which IDC defines as smart devices such as smart phones and media tablets, surpass PC shipments, said Attaphon Satidkanitkul, IDC Asia-Pacific research manager for Cross products & Consulting Group based in Thailand.

Even though the PC market this year is expected to grow in double digits - 10 per cent, the PC market in Thailand will grow at between 7 and 10 per cent. PC sales this year will be about 4.1 million units.

Meanwhile, the smart-device market this year will have sales of 6.7 million units - 1 million units of smart phones and 700,000 units of media tablets.

"The smart-phone market this year is expected to see sales double from 3 million units to 6 million units," said Jarit Sidhu, an associate market analyst at IDC Thailand.

Jarit added that media tablets could also see explosive growth, with more than 1 million units sold, if supply can match market demand. Currently, demand for media tablets has surpassed supply.

Another factor driving the growth of media tablets is the government's one tablet per child project. Once the project can be finalised and implemented, it would help encourage the growth of the overall market.

Attaphon added that the higher devices lead to higher data usage. Users are likely to stay on their Internet connections via the wireless networks, both Wi-Fi and 3G. Mobile telecom services providers will actively expand Wi-Fi services for 3G offload. However, the objective of Wi-Fi network expansion in Thailand is not only to better support users' mobile data packages but also reduce the gap of coverage area. IDC predicts that Wi-Fi service will gain momentum in 2012.

This year, mobile data will become the key growth factor for Thailand's telecom services market in 2012, expanding by 15.5 per cent year-on-year to reach US$968 million in 2012. The growth will be mainly driven by multimedia services such as mobile Web browsing, mobile Internet, VDO streaming, and e-mail services

Meanwhile, fixed data services are still able to generate positive growth with fixed broadband being a key driver in this market due to the various forms of support from the government. Mobile voice services will see flat growth while the fixed voice market will continue to drop.

Apart from the new era in personal computing, IT trends in 2012 are also about cloud computing and business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR).

Attaphon said that BC/DR has been adopted in Thailand for a while. However, with increased customer expectations for 24x7 access to uninterrupted services as well as constant pressure to minimise security risks and manage uncertainties, BC/DR is set to take flight in 2012.

IDC expects that maximum demand for BC/DR services will be generated from the financial services, telecommunication, and manufacturing sectors.

Developments in cloud technologies and its related services have been ongoing since the debut of the cloud in 2010. In 2011, there was a wide adoption of cloud layers such as infrastructure-as-a-service and application-as-a-service among IT Services Providers, Internet Service Providers, and data centre service providers. These developments have provided a strong foundation for cloud and its related technology and services in the country.

In 2012, IDC expects cloud computing to attract more attention from enterprises such as the financial services, telecommunication, manufacturing, and services sectors. IDC expects that cloud at infrastructure-as-a-service layer will be the champion service among the cloud services category, which includes application-as-a-service, and platform as a service. This is because most IT service providers and service providers in telecommunication have invested and improved their cloud system infrastructure to cope with upcoming demands from the market.

IDC also expects that enterprises across various industries in Thailand will be placing "customer centricity" approach on top of their IT investment plans from 2012 onwards. To become customer-centric, firms must look beyond traditional customer relationship management approaches and explore more on obtaining in-depth insights using IT tools to capture and analyse customer data from different sources to reach the ultimate goal of being able to determine what customers need and when they need.

Also, big data is the most discussed phrase in the IT business world today. In recent times, as a result of the rise and expansion of distinct sources (laptops, mobile devices, tablets social networks, real-time data stores, etc.) beyond just corporate transactions, there has been an explosive growth in data. Today, there are tools available that make it possible to generate insights from vast quantity of data.

"In Thailand, social media is getting widely adopted by enterprises and the public sector is encouraging investments in analytics to comprehend online community feedback and sentiments. We believe that big data analytics is a trend that Thailand enterprises cannot ignore," said Attaphon.

However, total IT spending in Thailand this year is expected to increase at between 10 per cent and 10.6 per cent to reach US$16.8 billion (Bt510 billion), which included IT market $9.6 billion and telecommunication service $7.28 billion. This figure is an increase from $15.2 billion total IT spending in Thailand last year.