Forrester Research estimates that purchases of IT goods and services will drop by 3% to $1.66 trillion this year, reversing an 8% gain from last year. That ends seven straight years of gains in IT spending.
"For IT vendor strategists, the global IT market will be a gloomy one in 2009, with prospects of improvement in 2010," said Andrew Bartels, Forrester's principal analyst in a press release. "Unlike in past years, there are no significant growth markets to offset the weak ones."
For tech investors, there is little to cheer about.
- Software products will be an estimated $388 billion in 2009, the same as in 2008;
- Purchases of routers, switches, private branch exchanges (PBXs), videoconferencing equipment, and unified communications equipment will likely fall to around $353 billion in 2009, a 3% decline from $364 billion in 2008;
- Purchases of personal computers, servers, storage devices, and peripherals will slip by approximately 4% to $434 billion in 2009, from $450 billion in 2008;
- Governments and businesses will buy an estimated $484 billion of IT consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing services in 2009, 3 percent less than in 2008.
What technology purchases will be made will come at a steep price for hardware and software companies in terms of discounts and freebies for things such as software and services.
It is not a good time to be on the sales staff of any technology company.
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