IDC revealed preliminary market sizing and forecast results for the worldwide IT leasing and financing market, encompassing leasing or financing IT equipment, software, and IT-related services. This market exceeded $70 billion worldwide in 2006, and will pass the $100 billion mark by 2010, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 8%.

The industry's mainstay product, equipment leasing, will come under increasing pressure from expected changes in accounting treatment, heightened global competition, and limited increases in IT equipment spending growth.

The changing market for IT equipment leasing will be overshadowed by strong growth in financing of both IT software and services. In 2006, equipment leasing accounted for approximately 70% of the worldwide leasing and financing volume. By 2010, IDC predicts that this share will drop by about twenty percentage points, while software and services financing will comprise approximately 50% of the worldwide market.

"New systems management and virtualization software stands poised to streamline end-user processes for provisioning and de-installing IT servers, storage and network equipment – driving fundamental changes in end-of-lease portfolio dynamics," said Joseph Pucciarelli, program director for IDC's Technology Financing Strategies research team. "This change, combined with shifts in the nature of the financed collateral, and strong market pressures driving both consolidation among existing participants and new market entrants, has created an unparalleled market opportunity for both captive and independent market providers such as CIT Group, GE Capital, HP Financial Services, IBM Global Financing, Microsoft Financing and Oracle Financing Division, among others."