World IT spending to top US $ 1.6 trillion:

Sri Lanka to benefit

Indunil Hewage

The major proportion of the world’s IT spending for 2011 will be acquired by emerging countries around the world. Sri Lanka, being an attractive destination for service investments in the world will play an enabling role in its journey towards the knowledge economy while gaining a considerable share of IT spending in the world.

The Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) General Secretary Madu Ratnayake said Sri Lanka needs to build niche focus on a few core areas in the IT and BPO industry as the IT and BPO service space is highly competitive.

The country needs to have a laser sharp focus and strong capabilities to deliver superb services to be globally competitive.

“Sri Lanka also needs to build a healthy mix of services and product based focus. Sri Lanka being small, focusing only on cost in a volume driven market will be difficult.”

“The country’s focus must be on high value services and innovations. Ethics, governance and social responsibility focus will also play a major factor,” Ratnayake said.

The recently published IDC Predictions 2011 report states that worldwide IT spending is to record US $ 1.6 trillion with a 5.7 percent growth in 2011. The major proportion of world’s IT spending is to acquire by emerging markets.

Emerging markets will account for 27 percent of global IT spending in 2011 recording a 10.4 growth over 2010. Worldwide growth of IT spending was 6.4 percent for the year 2010.

The report says worldwide hardware market is to record 7.8 percent growth and this growth is mainly driven by converged mobile devices, networking equipment and PCs.

A rebound can also be seen in software industry with a 5.3 percent growth in 2011 while services will record 3.4 percent growth for the year 2011.

BRIC countries will dominate accounting for 44 percent of emerging markets spending in 2011 recording a 14.4 percent growth over 2010.

China will generate 54 percent of BRIC spending. It is poised to pass Japan as the second IT market by 2013.

The networked population will also exceed two billion in 2011. 4G wireless broadband will see modest adoption, immodest marketing in 2011.

The value of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) will soar in digital media supply chains. Emerging markets will also begin to dramatically expand and transform the smart phone market.

The report says mobile devices and user surge is poised to challenge PC’s by expanding the existing market.

Media tablets will also soar with iPad holding a big lead in spite of lots of companies.