Vendors and service providers will scramble to announce cloud-related offerings, acquisitions, and partnerships to capture new customer spending. Similarly, Green IT will have a good year, benefiting from its ability to deliver near-term cost savings, although capital-intensive green investments will move down on many budget agendas.

The slowdown in spending will impact the telecommunications industry as well, cutting revenues in half, leading to global consolidation among the leading players, and sparking an aggressive expansion into cloud services.

Other IDC predictions for 2009 include:

The online economy will benefit as ever more shoppers turn to the Internet in search of better prices and products that have become harder to find in the struggling offline economy.

It will be a grim year for mobile gadgets as consumer spending shrinks and vendors cut prices (and margins) to capture or maintain market share.

The "business/personal" divide will crumble further as the increased use of mobile  technologies and Web 2.0 tools erode the distinctions between work and personal environments.

2009 will be a breakthrough year for information access and analysis as the next generation of "Eureka 2.0" tools come to market and a new leadership battle unfolds over this last – and most strategic – patch of IT market real estate.

"Although one would expect to see businesses and consumers to 'hunker down' and put IT spending on hold, it is more likely that technology spending will continue in areas where the benefits are clear," added Gens.

"While all sectors of the market will experience slower growth in 2009, the disruptive offerings and models that are transforming the industry will take less of a beating than traditional IT areas and will actually gain share faster in the down economy."

Source: IDC