IDC's predictions for 2005

GURGAON: India domestic IT market will be the fastest growing market in the Asia/Pacific region, predicted to grow at 21 percent in 2005 over 2004. According to IDC India's recently published research highlighting top 10 predictions, the growth in 2005 comes on the back of rising corporate profits, improvement in macroeconomic parameters (both globally and domestic), and heightened business confidence.

IDC also predicts that segments like notebooks, smart handheld devices, inkjet MFDs, security software, network and system management software, information access and delivery software and IT outsourcing will witness more than 30 percent in growth 2005 over 2004.

In the domestic ICT spending arena, BPO and IT Services will be the highest growing verticals and government and education will emerge on the technology horizon and BFSI will continue its strong run.

According to IDC, wireless would go mainstream in 2005 and broadband would emerge but with limited usage to basic access. In 2005, "offshoring" will accelerate as enterprises race to lower their cost structure, amidst global competition. On the other hand, the industry will continue to shift its capabilities and offerings closer to business processes and value, through greater investment in business consulting and process expertise, as well as greater focus on BPO.

The research firm also predicts that end-to-end solutions delivery model would become mainstream in 2005 and customers would look for single point of accountability. IT spending growth for 2005 is expected to be 6.1 percent worldwide. By sector, the strongest growth is likely to be in infrastructure software (including security), handheld devices, network equipment, and outsourcing services. The PC/server upgrade cycle will be in full swing until the end of 2005.

According to IDC, in 2005, in the Asia/Pacific region Japan, by far the largest IT market in Asia/Pacific-will continue to trail the US and Europe in IT growth rate. On the other hand, IT growth in much of the rest of the Asian market will remain robust in 2005, replicating its growth of 10 percent in 2004.

According to the research firm, worldwide the three emerging technologies worth watching in 2005 will be - RFID with sensors, Mesh Networks and Semantic Web.