There may not have been any staggering innovative breakthroughs at the South by Southwest Interactive conference last week, but the annual gathering showcased the growing importance of consumer-oriented technologies to business users. Three major trends were on display, writes R "Ray" Wang in a post at HarvardBusinessReview.

Mobility is now the preferred platform for developers, who start with this form and then adapt it to the cloud, Wang notes. The convergence of mobility and social media is in its infancy, and it will grow to become increasingly significant to enterprises.

As location-based services proliferate, the need for privacy protections is becoming imperative, Wang cautions. Users' apprehension about disclosing their location could impede the expansion of these services unless providers offer a way for users to conceal their whereabouts.

The evolution of consumer gizmos and gadgets to enterprise-grade offerings will be driven by "a fragile freemium model," Wang writes. Consumer offerings, to be profitable, will have to come with the enterprise requirements of simplicity, scalability, safety, security and sustainability. 

For more:
- see R "Ray" Wang's post at HarvardBusinessReview

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