IDC's India ICT Market Top 10 Predictions 2010

Market intelligence firm IDC predicts that in 2010 there will be a series of paradigm shifts in the information technology space for the consumer as well as enterprises.

In its report India ICT Market Top 10 Predictions 2010, IDC predicts that the consumer will advance to the next level – Consumer 2.0 – from Consumer 1.0 marked by advancements in mobile computing leading to next-generation ‘netbooks’ and availability of several new applications for smart handheld devices (SHDs) or smartphones.

IDC expects enterprises to ‘consolidate’ IT infrastructure to reduce capital expenditure and overheads as virtualisation across key infrastructure technology products and solutions like servers and storage, networking and desktops takes off. Enterprises, across a range of industries, will ‘leverage’ their existing IT infrastructure for greater competitive advantage by deploying innovative, high-value solutions.

A number of firms will adopt ‘cloud computing’ and launch ‘green tech’ or ‘green initiatives’ to accelerate business recovery and growth.

IDC expects the combined India domestic IT-ITeS market to grow 15 percent in 2010 to achieve revenues of Rs 1,20,666 crore compared to Rs 1,04,906 crore in 2009.

The domestic IT market is expected to grow 13 percent in 2010 to touch Rs 1,07,655 crore, while the domestic ITeS market is expected to post revenues of Rs 13,011 crore, a growth of 35 percent.

“As consumers and enterprises demand services and solutions that allow them to ‘do more with less’, the ICT industry will focus on business model innovation, improved productivity, faster return on investment and cost savings,” said Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India.

“IT implementations in 2010 and beyond will, therefore, have to manage higher business effectiveness and innovation through IT and greater efficiency of IT investments,” Singh added.

The India Domestic ICT Market Top 10 Predictions 2010 are:

1. India IT-ITeS sector, with a growth rate of 15 percent, to remain the fastest growing IT-ITeS market in the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region in 2010.

2. Paradigm shift for Consumer ICT – from ‘Consumer 1.0’ to ‘Consumer 2.0’ – to strengthen as

a. PC market to witness a generational shift, notably to the mini notebook PC or ‘netbook’ as Solid State Disk (SSD) ensembles reach a new threshold of usage in mobile computing

b. Smart handheld devices (SHDs) running new applications and services to take off as they reach high levels of penetration and wider acceptance

c. Highly advanced range of client-end digital products such as enhanced digital cameras to address the demands of the ‘serious enthusiast’, and services like online digital photo albums or ‘photobooks’ to see increased adoption.

3. A lag in the roll-out of 3G/ WiMAX to affect the launch of new types of consumer services. While consumers may experience newer digital products, they will have to make do with the limited spectrum of applications currently available and wait to experience the full range of next-generation services.

4. ‘Consolidation’ to take place in many technology markets as enterprises aim for higher efficiencies from existing IT infrastructure resources to reduce business overheads and CAPEX to the minimum. In 2010, virtualisation to gather steam and grow along the key infrastructure technology products and solutions such as servers and storage, networking and desktops.

5. ‘Leveraging’ to provide enterprises, across a diverse range of industries and sectors, a distinct competitive advantage as they deploy solutions that offer innovation and high-value, quick RoI to their customers.

a. Business Intelligence (BI) and Advanced Analytics to witness increased adoption as a part of the industry transformation in the post-slowdown economy

b. More organisations to outsource as the industry moves closer to an era of ‘Technology-Enabled Business Outsourcing (TEBO)’ services

c. Collaboration and Unified Communications (UC) technologies like immersive telepresence, videoconferencing and other ‘socialytic’ or Web 2.0-type applications to witness integrated build-outs.

6. Acceptance and adoption of the ‘Cloud’ to grow as the post-economic slowdown scenario drives more organisations towards it, to harness its power in accelerating business recovery and growth.

7. ‘Green tech’ and ‘green initiatives’ to start emerging in 2010 based on overarching business concerns of cost control, efficiency and new public policy formulations driven by global environmental concerns.

a. Power management and cooling efficiencies getting increased attention from large enterprise and BPO industry top managements; introduction of unconventional (‘battery-less’) and solar UPS systems for the India market by major international vendors

b. Establishment of ‘Green’ and ‘Intelligent’ cities/ special economic zones (SEZs) across the country.

8. e-Governance and ‘Economic Stimulus Spending’ will continue to invigorate government/ public sector IT spending to new levels in 2010. Large scale e-governance projects to witness increased adoption of Document Management Services (DMS) and digital imaging technologies, notably scanners.

9. Security in the age of ‘x-as-a-Service’: The critical business case for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC & DR) solutions.

10. Worldwide IT market growth to revive to 3.2 percent and touch nearly $ 1.5 trillion spending in 2010 up from an estimated $ 1.45 trillion for full year 2009.