Telecom Trends

About two-thirds of telecom and technology firms have had a new rival enter their market with innovative products or services, according to a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report was sponsored by SAS.

"Opening up: How R&D is changing in the telecommunications sector today", [ pdf] cites the entry of Apple into the mobile phone market as an example impacting both technology firms and wireless service providers.

Most of those companies that had not yet faced innovative new competitors expected a disruption to impact them soon. Just 8% of the firms surveyed for the report believe they are immune to such shifts.

Eighty percent of executives worry about the entry of new rivals and expect the complexity and pace of R&D to increase over the next two years. Over the same period, half expect to see product life-cycles shorten, adding pressure to the innovation process.

The paper discusses firms embracing the principles of "open innovation", engaging suppliers, partners, academia and customers in the process.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Telecom firms plan to deliver more products than before, with shorter lifecycles.
• Embracing a more open approach brings organizational challenges.

Download the report. It will make for some interesting reading over the holiday weekend.

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