'US IT mart to total $889 b in 2011'

 At this level, total IT market in the US, which is world’s largest, will be 7.4 per cent larger than the previous year. This is against estimated growth in ICT market in 2010 at around 8.2 per cent.

Forrester predicted that with the end of economic stimulus programmes and politically divided US government unlikely to provide another boost to the economy, the US economy will be hard-pressed to grow faster than 3 per cent but the IT market will grow twice as fast as GDP growth.

Among various segments it is estimated that telecommunications services will continue to be the largest part of US ICT market, at $288 billion. Software will have next largest share in 2011, at $220 billion, communications equipment will be third largest segment at $105 billion and IT outsourcing, computer equipment, and IT consulting and systems integration services will be approximately of equal sizes of $101 billion, $97 billion, and $79 billion.

Forrester thinks that given the uncertainties in the domestic economic outlook, growth of 7.4 per cent on 2011 is still relatively bullish forecast. “Clearly, the tech market will not grow at double-digit rate that tech vendors would like to see. But given feeble growth in the macroeconomy, a tech market that grows twice as fast as the
US economy would still be a respectable performance, the report said. And looking ahead for the first time to 2012, Forrester expects stronger US economy and continued strong demand for cloud and smart computing solutions to push the growth rate in the US IT market up to 9.4 per cent.

However, the government market for IT will lag, though, as federal, state, and local governments struggle with high deficits. The computer restocking and replacement boom that propelled the tech market in 2010 will slow to 5.9 per cent growth in 2011, but software and IT consulting services will pick up the slack, with growth of 8.4 per cent and 8.2 per cent.