Updated: Sep 2, 2019

Gary Carter, Chairman at DAC Systems, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and recognised provider of next-generation solution infrastructure, believes 2017 will be the year when tech disruptors entrench their positions and tech-savvy consumers differentiate genuine value from fly-by-night opportunists.

Several tech trends will come to the fore next year says Carter, with the main ones being security, mobility and the cloud – but consumers will tend to move closer to mainstream commercial channels for news dissemination, and there is likely to be an improvement in South Africa’s overall standing he says.

“Security will be top of the agenda as more breaches occur, including data leaks and hacks. The cloud will dominate next year, and we should expect the sale of net only laptops to soar,” says Carter.

A key characteristic of 2017 will be a more discerning, more tech-savvy users and they will become more wary of social media and abuses. There will be a higher level of tech adoption, specifically mobile and application will be more strategic and selective.

“Nobody is going to be able to trust online news as fake news feeds become indistinguishable from the real news – people will have to drift back to trusted radio and TV stations to get their news,” Carter adds.

Ultimately, despite the many challenges that South Africans face on a daily basis, there will be improvements and there will be socio-economic development.

“Much like the ICT sector, we can expect a lively, interesting and dynamic phase of development within the country. It is going to be a challenging but never dull time… watch this space!” says Carter.