Demand for new hardware drives IT spending in 2010: IDC

The global IT market staged a healthy comeback last year, with expenditure on IT products and services rising by 8 per cent from 2009 to more than $1.5 trillion, according to market research firm IDC’s Worldwide Black Book report.

The report indicated that last year the IT industry registered its fastest growth rate since 2007.

Global spending on information technology was driven by pent-up demand for hardware upgrades and infrastructure investment after the financial crisis and global recession of 2009, as per the report.

Factoring in the telecommunications segment, the overall ICT (information and communications technology) market saw its spending climb to almost $3 trillion, up 6 per cent from 2009.

According to IDC, the growth was driven by the need and ability of businesses to spend money to refresh their hardware and invest in technology infrastructure.

“Like the global economy, the global IT industry performed better than expected in 2010,” Mr Stephen Minton, Vice-President of IDC’s IT markets and strategies group, said in a statement.

“With business profits and stock markets back into a cycle of growth, many organisations took the opportunity to make up for the lost time by upgrading mission critical systems and infrastructure over the course of the year.”

IDC found that the demand for new hardware drove the rebound in 2010, as spending on computers, peripherals, storage technology, mobile devices and network equipment rose 16 per cent to more than $661 billion, the fastest growth rate for hardware since 1996.

Breaking down the results, spending on storage products alone grew by 14 per cent, servers 9 per cent and PCs by 11 per cent. Spending on software, though not as robust, also rose 4 per cent, while that on IT services grew by 2 per cent.

IT spending in the US rose 6 per cent last year and should grow by another 5 per cent in 2011, as per the report.

Developing economies were the force behind much of the growth in 2010 and should continue to be so in 2011. Not counting Japan, the Asia/Pacific region’s IT market climbed by 13 per cent last year and is expected to register a 10 per cent increase this year.

IDC is also looking for double-digit growth from Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and West Asia and Africa. IT spending in more developed economies, such as Western Europe, Japan, and Canada will grow, but at slower rates, it said.