IT market to reach 1,37 billion euros in 2008

The value of Romanian IT market is estimated at 1.37 billion euros in 2008, by some 11% more than the level registered last year, the growth pace being inferior to that in 2007, when the advance of the market was 16.7%, according to the forecast of the research company IDC.

The hardware market will remain the most important component of the IT market, due to a very high demand for personal computers  (PCs), reads an IDC release.

Although notebook sales will represent about one third of the sold desktop units, they will nevertheless see a double growth pace, compared to desktops. The growth rate of the PC market value, expressed in euro, will be around 10%, although there is a significant increase in the demand for notebook units, representing the effect of the gradual market maturation and the drop in personal computer prices.

"The symbiosis between the availability of broadband (internet - ed.n.) connections and the PC penetration rate will become very evident this year. The access to fixed and mobile broadband connections spreads very fast, which positively influences PC purchase. More PCs means more internet connections and more demand for broadband, which completes this symbiotic cycle", said in the release Madalin Lazarescu, Research Manager with IDC.

Investments in IT services will boost by 19.6% until the end of this years, representing an advance of two percentage points on the rate registered in 2007.
IDC representatives say that an essential factor of this year will be sharp competition, and the national, international and multinational companies will compete for as high as possible shares of local and foreign investments, and the European structural funds dedicated to IT services.

"The support and system integration services will continue to dominate the IT service market, and the project-type contracts will prevail more and more over the year. This will encourage competition, because the project-type contracts with clearly defined deadlines mean that beneficiaries can migrate from a supplier to another much easier than in the case of long-term contracts of services", said Calin Mirea, Research Analyst with IDC.

The competition will also be very strong in the software market, at a growth rate that will stand at approximately 11% in 2008.

Curierul National