The IT industry across Asia Pacific is expected to register lower revenues due to the global economic slowdown and terrorist attacks in the United States, with Australia expected to be one of the most affected countries.
According to the International Data Corp (IDC), the region"s IT business--excluding Japan--is expected to hit US$66.8 million by year end compared with US$66.26 million last year, a mere 1.3 percent growth.
Earlier estimates for 2001 were not provided but in July, the research house said that total IT spending in the region was expected to reach US$106 billion in 2003.
Last year, Asia Pacific economies spent an estimated US$44.7 billion on hardware, US$7.2 billion on software and US$14.3 billion on services, IDC said.
"Our recent research indicates that IT budgets will be put in place next year at higher levels than they were this year but that spending against these budgets will be postponed until businesses are able to sense that the economy is turning around," Piyush Singh, IDC Asia Pacific managing director said.
The hardware sector will be especially hurt, with a steep slide in the sale of PCs, servers, peripherals and workstations. Alternatively, software sales will remain strong as this sector is still under-penetrated in several countries.