BANGALORE, INDIA: It is getting to be that time of year when many of us start thinking about 2012. Planning season is well underway at EMC, as it is for many of our customers and partners. Maybe you're doing some of your own 2012 planning right now?

I thought I'd try and help out by offering my own personal predictions for those of us in the IT industry: vendors, customers and partners alike.

These pronouncements aren’t really meant to be definitive -- just hopefully provoke a bit of thought and discussion. 

See what you think …

1. The New “Killer App”: Simplicity
Since the beginning of time, it seems that applications designers have been in a mad rush to throw ever-more-functionality into applications that we all had to deal with. 

Now, it seems the tide has turned. 

We're all demanding apps that are not only easy and intuitive to use, but easy to find, easy to install -- and easy to consume wherever we go. If it is not simple, we’re not interested. 

Documentation?  Training?  Forget it.

Think about it: Things like Dropbox really don't do anything all that new (e.g. file sharing), it just makes file sharing incredibly simple. Ditto Spotify with music, and so on.

And I think enterprise application developers are starting to realize that apps are easier to consume will get consumed more -- and thus deliver more value. Those of us who built IT infrastructure products (such as EMC) now understand this more than ever.

Expect more single-function enterprise apps, expect them to show-up in a variety of enterprise app stores, and expect them to work well with other similar apps you're likely to have or want.

It’s been true for consumers for a while; in 2012 it moves to the enterprise.

2. In the Enterprise, Everyone’s A Consumer: Start Thinking "Mobile First".
More and more of us knowledge workers are completely blurring the traditional lines betwen "work" and "life".  We need to be able to work effectively wherever we might be, and that doesn't mean rooted behind a large screen, mouse and keyboard.

Time for enterprise IT types to realize that good mobile experiences shouldn't be an afterthought; going forward, maybe it should be the first thought.

Unfortunately, there's much more to a good mobile experience than simply shrinking your user interface, or saying you support mobile browsers.

Besides obviously having native apps that are "finger-friendly", there are some thornier challenges afoot -- such as how can your app remain useful even if there's poor to no network signal? How do you cache (and secure) useful information before it's needed? How to do drive enterprise workflows -- especially collaborative ones -- across mobile and traditional devices?

And -- ultimately -- how do you secure the data when it's almost guaranteed you'll eventually leave the device in a taxi, bar, hotel room, etc.?

The mindset of many enterprise developers is going to have to change  -- to a "mobile first" strategy, and then maybe a back-ported version to a traditional desktop. People are demanding applications that are easy to consume -- and part of that is the device that’s always in my hand.

Enterprise app developers -- are you listening? I think more of them will get the memo in 2012.