Student Innovations Highlight There's Still Life In Bricks-And-Mortar Tech

Reflecting back on my second year at the TMT Predictions schools challenge Grand Final, I was once again amazed by the innovative ideas that the students from our Deloitte Access Schools came up with in response to the challenges we set them about our Tech, Media and Telco Predictions.

One of the things that stood out for me this year compared to last year was the emphasis on mobile applications – in fact all three of the finalists' proposals were app based. This reflects a prominent theme of the new-age start-up business model - software over hardware. Faster go-to-market times, easier and sleeker prototypes, scalability – it's no surprise that apps are taking over the modern business world. To conceptualise this shift, it is important to take into account that all new pieces of hardware are equally reliant on software upgrades in order to perform their maximum potential – whereas a new app will work on previous devices, as well as the most current. This is all