Accenture Study: Are You Ready For Superstacks?

The technology industry is going through a transformation that will lead to mergers, acquisitions and increased specialization, according to the report, "Competing In a High Tech Industry Superstack." Thirty C-level executives -- 80 percent from high-tech companies with more than $2 billion in sales -- participated in the research.

The two top reasons companies would consider M&A activity include acquiring assets to accelerate time to market of their own products and gaining access to more employee talent. The study found that once a company determines which of those strategies it will follow, it is able to address potential performance gaps in innovation/product portfolio management, talent management, and marketing and sales.

With mobile technology sales booming, survey respondents identified that segment as the most intense area of investment, development and innovation. The battle among Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows illustrates how the choice of operating system can attract and influence users and developers. It's the combination of the device and software that is compelling.

Respondents said cloud computing will have the second largest impact on business, after mobility. The emergence of services based on cloud computing is driving innovation in organizing data remotely. Cloud and mobility are already intertwined, the report noted. "It is already easier to 'lock customers in' to a particular ecosystem if content is stored in a different location from the device because this allows the device to be changed or upgraded while staying within the ecosystem," the report stated.

The study singled out Apple as one of the first to employ a high-tech stack, integrating chipset, device, OS, applications and services. After identifying mobile devices as a segment with high revenue potential, Apple built devices on its unique operating system, and integrated vertically to include cloud-based services.