Cambridge, Mass. — Global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments in 2009 are projected to decline by 10.6 percent when measured in U.S. dollars, according to the latest quarterly update report by Forrester Research Inc. This is in comparison with the 3 percent decrease previously projected at the beginning of the year.
The IT spending outlook, “US And Global IT Market Outlook: Q2 2009,” also shows that the annual U.S. IT market will slip 5.1 percent compared with the 3.1 percent decrease previously forecast. A bright spot: Forrester still expects growth in U.S. IT investment to resume in the fourth quarter of 2009, and 2010 is expected to bring a revival of IT buying in other markets as well.
“While Q1 2009 saw a scary drop in purchases in the U.S. tech market, ironically that is good news for the long run and we expect to see a stronger rebound sooner,” said Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst, in a statement. “The big drops are not precursors to further declines; rather, we think they are evidence of a temporary pause in U.S. tech purchases, which we expect to start recovering in Q4 as businesses realize that they overreacted in the first quarter.”
Bartels also expects the tech markets in Europe and Asia to start their recovery in the first half of 2010.
The data in the new Forrester forecast report focuses on IT purchasing — how much computer and communications equipment, software, IT consulting and integration services, and IT outsourcing that businesses and governments buy from technology vendors.
Looking at the 2009 global IT spending outlook by sector, Forrester anticipates lower investment than previously expected across all sectors in 2009, projecting purchases of computer equipment to be down by 13.5 percent, communications equipment buying to drop by 12.4 percent, software spending to decline by 8.2 percent, and purchases of IT consulting and outsourcing services to be 8.6 percent lower.