Global IT industry to regain growth in 2010

The sector will return to growth in 2010 says Gartner

Worldwide IT spending is on pace to decline 5.2 per cent in 2009 with enterprise IT spending set to fall 6.9 per cent, according to figures from analyst Gartner.

The analyst expect the IT industry to return to growth in 2010 with spending forecast to total $3.3tn, (£2tn) a 3.3 per cent increase on 2009.

But Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of research warned against too much optimism.

"While the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, the market will not recover to 2008 revenue levels before 2012," he said.

"2010 is about balancing the focus on cost, risk, and growth. For more than 50 per cent of CIOs the IT budget will be 0 per cent or less in growth terms. It will only slowly improve in 2011."

The computing hardware market has struggled more than other segments with worldwide hardware spending forecast to total $317bn (£193bn) in 2009, a 16.5 per cent decline on 2008. Spending on hardware is forecast to remain flat in 2010.

Worldwide, telecom spending is on pace to decline 4 per cent in 2009 with revenue of nearly $1.9tn, (£1.16tn) and forecast to grow 3.2 per cent in 2010.

Worldwide IT services spending is expected to total $781bn in 2009, and it is forecast to grow 4.5 per cent in 2010.

Worldwide software spending is forecast to decline 2.1 per cent in 2009, and the segment is projected to grow 4.8 per cent in 2010.

Gartner said there will be a continued trend towards operational expenditure by businesses throughout the year rather than one-off capital sprees, driven by the rise of cloud services.