Deloitte Global has released the 19th edition of its "Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions", presented at the annual TMT Conference which took place on Monday 27 January 2020 at Deloitte Luxembourg.

This year’s predictions focussed on three overarching themes: individual technologies becoming ever more interconnected and interdependent, increasing their impact and value as a result; how smartphones, computers, TVs, enterprise data centers and software and IoT will drive most of the TMT industry’s revenue; and lastly many previously hyped services and products will finally become a reality in 2020.

Artificial Intelligence 

According to the report, a new generation of edge artificial intelligence (AI) chips will reduce frustrations caused by lack of internet connection on smartphones by bringing AI to the device. Deloitte has predicted that in 2020, more than 750 million edge AI chips (chips or parts of chips that perform or accelerate machine learning tasks on-device, rather than in a remote data centre) will be sold, and that the edge AI chip market will continue to grow much more quickly than the overall chip market.

Private 5G

Deloitte also predicted that more than 100 companies worldwide will begin testing private 5G deployments by the end of 2020, collectively investing a few hundred million dollars in labour and equipment. For many of the world’s largest businesses, private 5G will likely become the preferred choice, especially for industrial environments such as manufacturing plants, logistics centres and ports.

David Osville, TMT Leader at Deloitte Luxembourg, explained: “The adoption of 5G would be a fundamental development that would enable new levels of productivity and innovation in various sectors of the Grand Duchy’s economy. A rapid deployment of 5G would make Luxembourg a fertile ground for the genesis and attractiveness of a new generation of 5G and Internet-of-Things related companies".

Robots

Of the almost one million robots Deloitte expects to be sold for enterprise use in 2020, just over half of them will be professional service robots, generating more than US$16 billion in revenue- 30% more than in 2019. Professional service robots will pass industrial robots in terms of units in 2020 and revenue in 2021.

Advertising

Deloitte similarly predicted that global revenue from ad-supported video services will reach an estimated US$32 billion in 2020. Asia, including China and India, will lead with US$15.5 billion in revenue in 2020, nearly half of the global total. In China, India, and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, ad-supported video is the dominant model of delivering streaming video to consumers. By contrast, in the United States, most direct-to-consumer video offerings are pursuing an ad-free subscription model. 

Low-earth orbit satellites

According to the survey, by the end of 2020, there will be over 700 satellites in low-earth orbit (LEO) seeking to offer global broadband internet, increasing roughly by 200 at the end of 2019. These new “mega-constellations” of orbiting broadband stations will potentially add more than 16,000 individual satellites to that count over the coming years.

Mobile Consumer Survey

The event also posed as an opportunity to hear from Deloitte’s experts exploring the breakdown of results from Deloitte’s Mobile Consumer Survey for Luxembourg. In the eighth edition of the survey, the Luxembourg portion investigated some of the key themes around smartphone adoption, mobile banking and the next steps and trends to be aware of.

Ronan Vander Elst, Partner and Digital co-Leader at Deloitte Luxembourg, commented: “As mobile services remain a steadfast commodity, with 94 percent of people in Luxembourg owning a smartphone, companies must differentiate themselves more so than ever through outstanding customer experience".

To read the TMT Predictions 2020 in full, visit https://www2.deloitte.com/lu/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-predictions.html. To find out more about Deloitte’s Mobile Consumer Survey, see https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/mobile-consumer.html.