As we’ve said more than once recently, it’s the time of year for predictions. We made some of our own 2011 predictions in this week’s podcast… and now it’s time for mobile messaging company Airwide Solutions to take a look at the next 12 months.

Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at Airwide Solutions, has published the following thoughts for next year:

Machine-to-Machine messaging goes from hype to reality
After years of inflated expectations and hurdles brought about by the complexity of business models and logistics, M2M communications will finally become a mass market reality in 2011. M2M or ‘connected devices’ foster the development of embedded mobile devices. M2M also brings automation and ‘advanced control’ to different verticals - transport and logistics; banking and financial services; security and tracking; telemetry and monitoring; and e-health care. Connected technology will help make these industries much more efficient and effective in the New Year.

The term ‘messaging’ is redefined, thanks to Facebook and social applications
Social messaging will become a much more standard way for people to message each other. It is platform agnostic - you can do it on your mobile, on your desktop, on your tablet. Social messaging connects you anytime, anywhere, on any medium and it will be one of the forms of messaging operators consider to be much more core going forward.

Location integrated apps to drive mobile marketing campaigns
Applications such as Foursquare, that integrate location and social networking, will become the apps that businesses use for mobile marketing campaigns next year. Businesses will begin to appreciate that increased use of such apps allows them to target consumers in a much more personal and proactive way than other traditional marketing channels.

Data breaches prompt operators to accelerate investments in security
While not impacting mobile network security specifically, the recent WikiLeaks breach has seen all organisations which store sensitive data re-evaluating their security. High level data breaches, which always receive a lot of media attention, will see operators start to invest much more in mobile data security at the network level next year. A serious focus for operators in 2011 will be to avoid being caught by a major security breach that could damage their trusted relationship with the consumer.

Consumers become savvier to security
Consumers will also become much more sensitive to the security and privacy of their device; and want to know more about who and what controls their data and mobile phone. Next year consumers will press for simple and effective solutions to protect their devices, and the data stored on them. In this respect, operators will be helped by solutions from handset manufacturers and endpoint security providers.

Device proliferation will change existing business models
As consumers use smartphones, tablets and laptops to connect, the drive for unified billing will become necessary. This will challenge the use of volume as the unit of billing even as carriers roll back from all-you-can-eat plans. This will increase experimentation with quality of experience elements in billing driven by the device endpoint.

Seamless experience will become a focus for operators
Giving consumers the same experience on WiFi, 3G and LTE will become a focus for operators as they work to demonstrate their differentiation and add value to third party relationships.  Providers who enable their customers to select how and when their devices are interconnected (and assure the same level of service) will take the lead.

LTE and all-IP crossing the chasm
At the end of 2011 there will be over 50 LTE deployments in force to address the cost per bandwidth issue of the mobile internet. The spectacular rise of mobile data traffic, due to smartphones like the iPhone and Android-based devices, has made such LTE deployments necessary. However, LTE requires an overhaul to the entire network infrastructure, radio and core, as well as new handsets to make it fully effective, but this will not be straightforward. To ensure operators are able to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible, Airwide believes carriers should add IP as a channel for voice and messaging as this will ensure the protection of their profitable revenues.