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Report: Global IT Revival Has Begun

Forrester Research says comeback has begun for the global IT tech sector

• By Kurt Mackie
• 04/12/2010

A comeback has begun for the global IT tech sector, according to a quarterly economic report released on Friday by Forrester Research.

The U.S. IT market is set to grow by 8.4 percent this year, according to Andrew Bartels, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. He made that prediction based on an updated study that analyzes IT global economic results in the first quarter of 2010. Previously, he had predicted growth of 6.6 percent for the U.S. IT market in a Forrester report examining fourth-quarter 2009 results.

The report, "US and Global IT Market Outlook: Q1 2010," predicts that a similar IT tech recovery will occur worldwide. Bartels expects to see the global IT market grow by 7.7 percent. He attributed the slightly slower global growth, compared with the U.S. market, to a weaker Euro currency. Previously, he had predicted growth of 8.1 percent for the global IT market based on fourth-quarter 2009 results.

Bartels has been an optimist about an impending tech-sector recovery -- even during the dark days of last year's fourth quarter, when the general economy had clearly hit the skids. The signs that things were getting better were apparent back in January, he explained in a blog post. He saw glimmers of a building tech boom even as far back as October after taking a look at revised IT-sector investment data presented by the U.S. government.

Bartels expects to see gains in 2010 for computer equipment ("PCs, peripherals and storage equipment") and software sales ("operating system software and applications"). Enterprises and small-to-medium businesses will be in the market for communications equipment, he predicts in the new report.

Those IT professionals who provide systems integration services will have to tough it out until software license purchases start to rise, he cautioned.

The IT tech revival in 2010 will show its strongest results in particular sectors of the economy, including "US manufacturers, financial services firms, utilities, and health care," according to Bartels. The report estimates the overall U.S. tech industry to be worth about $741 billion.