Looking back on our predictions for 2010 and into the future of 2011

With 2010 over, it's time to make outlandish predictions about 2011! But first I think it's best to look back on last year's predictions. At first blush, it looks like we played a little safe--perhaps this year we will have to take it up a notch.

So how did we do last year? Well, first off we said companies would look to Unified Communications (UC) for cost savings in light of the economy. I'd say that that was a trend for sure in 2010 and one that will continue into 2011 if you read one of today's top stories. One thing we only breifly mentioned but should have focused on was how well Hosted UC took off as a way to save money. Sure, UC offers efficiency and cool new features, but the story of 2010 seems to be companies turning to hosted offerings to really get the cost savings.

Next we said Video Calls were the future. So maybe it hasn't quite arrived yet, but people are now able to make video calls using Skype through their TVs. Cisco has launched a home telepresence system. Even the iPhone sports a number of ways to make mobile video calls now over WiFi or 3G!

We also thought Net Neutrality might threaten some VoIP innovators, but so far that hasn't happened. In fact, it wasn't until the last minutes of 2010 that the FCC passed the Net Neutrality rules. The rules passed got mixed reviews and are ambiguous enough to cause confusion. Network operators do now have the right to conduct reasonable network management so beware network hogging VoIP and Video apps. It really wont be until later in 2011 that we will see the effects of the rules.

As far as Mobile VoIP was concerned, last year we predicted that with the threat of VoIP and Video, the unlimited data train would hit the breaks and carriers would start adopting buckets like their minutes plans. That actually happened in 2010, but so far not too many consumers are complaining. We also thought 4G networks would offer more VoIP based plans, but so far we haven't seen that.

Finally, we added to our predictions the rise of cloud services and hosted VoIP. I am going to say that was a pretty safe bet and we got it right. Recent reports peg hosted services as being the secret behind the growth of UC in 2010. Not bad. 

What's 2011 have in store for us? We've written a feature with some more off-the-wall ideas as well as a few real ideas for where we are going next year. Click here to see our predictions for 2011... Happy New Year! - Mike