G-20 SMBs to spend USD 455 bn on IT in 2010

SAN JOSE, CA: Small and Mid-Market Businesses in G20 countries are expected to spend US$435 Billion on IT in 2009, said a survey by Techaisle, a data driven market research analyst and consulting company.

This represents a little over 89 per cent of global SMB IT spend, in contrast the G20 are expected to account for 87 per cent of global GDP in 2009.

While 2009 has been a slow growth year with pace picking in the latter half of the year, G20 SMBs IT spend is forecast to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2010 to US$455 Billion.

According to the survey the forecast growth rate is weighed down by the slow growth within established countries that are members of G20.

The G20 comprises the USA, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, South Africa and the rest of the EU (represented by the European council president).

There are a total of 48 million SMBs in the G20 member countries that represent 67 per cent of SMBs globally. The PC penetration among the G20 SMBs is 70 per cent, said a press release.

This results in over 33 million SMBs that have at least one PC  representing 83 per cent of global SMBs that have a PC.

Similarly, Internet penetration is 65 per cent and broadband penetration is 59 per cent among the G20 SMBs. However, the server penetration is only 20 per cent.

In a survey of SMBs across several G-20 countries, when businesses were specifically asked which areas of IT were they planning to invest in when the economy in their respective countries improved, the priories were cited as purchasing new PCs and servers, upgrading business productivity software (Office), network hardware (switches, routers), existing servers.

Investing in Unified Communications, implementing new networks, upgrading line of business software (LOB) as well PC and network security software, also emerged in the SMB priorities list.

Similarly, there are 1,199 million or 1.99 billion households within the G20 member countries which represent 72 per cent of total number of households worldwide.

These households are forecast to spend US$96 billion on IT in 2010 representing over 87 per cent of worldwide consumer spending. The PC penetration among households within G20 countries is only 44 per cent but it constitutes over 86 per cent of worldwide households that have at least one PC, said the study.