The global information technology market will expand nearly 30% over the next four years.
Of course, not all markets around the globe are expected to grow equally.
"Regional dynamics can significantly impact business challenges in different industries," said Anne Lu of IDC. "IT vendors should look closely at the unique industry and regional trends and business challenges of each target market and then segment their customers based on these needs."
The three major components of the IT market are software, hardware and services, and IDC forecasts growth in each area.
Looking first at hardware, worldwide market spending is set to recover in the 2006-2010 period, reaching $562 billion in 2010. IDC sees rising spending on volume servers, peripherals and storage, and networking equipment. But growth will be driven mainly by robust spending in the home business and consumer, communications and government sectors.
Worldwide software spending is expected to reach $327 billion in 2010, reflecting a five-year CAGR of 7.7%. The largest markets are discrete manufacturing, services industries and government, and the fastest-growing markets will be health care, communications and government.
Finally, IDC expects spending on IT services worldwide to reach $587 billion in 2010, reflecting a CAGR of 5.8% from 2005 to 2010. The largest market opportunities will be in government, banking and discrete manufacturing.
