Global 2009 IT Spending Will Barely Grow, IDC Says

Eric Savitz,  Tech Trader Daily, February 25, 2009, 9:53 am 

The problem isn’t just chips: IDC is forecasting worldwide 2009 IT spending growth of just 0.5%, down from a November forecast of 2.6% growth. The research firm said that if recent exchange rate trends continue “this will translate into a significant decline in revenues for U.S.-based IT suppliers.” 

IDC says the biggest will be on hardware: it sees spending in the sector shrinking 3.6%, “led by a steep decline” in outlays on servers, PCs and printers. Spending on software and IT services is sepxceted to grow 3.4%. IDC had previously expected 4.6% growth in hardware and 3.7% growth in software and services. 

IDC sees U.S. overall IT spending growth of 0.1%, down from its previous forecast of 0.9% growth, with hardware spending down 16%. The research firm sees 0.1% growth in Western Europe, and 1.4% growth in Asia/Pacific. Japan is expected to see a 1.8% decline in IT spend. 

Meanwhile, in another report, IDC reports that the worldwide server market shrank 14% in the fourth quarter versus the year ago quarter, on a 12% drop in unit shipments. “Volume systems” were down 16.8%, midrange systems fell 14.5% and high-end enterprise systems fell 7.5%.  IDC said this was the first time since 2002 that all three server segments saw a decline in revenue at the same time.