In fact there's one sector that seems to be doing rather okay despite everything else: that's right mobile computing.
The latest ode to joy comes in a report by TechMarketView, that predicts the UK software and IT services market to shrink in real terms for three consecutive years with only modest recovery by 2011. And the good news is.....?
This would be the first decline since 2003 and is probably enough to make marcoms managers hit the valium. Yet going into more detail, what's clear is that the pain will not likely be equally spread.
TechMarketView's report is, wait for this, an 'optimistic' outlook on how things will pan out. It warns that its forecast were made on what could certainly y be a gross assumption that things don't get any worse than they are/ (Can anyone argue with any certainty that this will be the case?)
Businesses are simply reining back 'discretionary' IT spending and will do so for the next two years. This is going to drive down the demand for new software licences and related project services and when the good times roll again, TechMarketView expects the UK software and IT services (SITS) landscape to be much changed with many of today's leading players taking big hits. (And that's not meant to be the silver lining :-) )
Yet despite this, TechMarketView's Richard Holway an IT research veteran says that he remains broadly optimistic about the long term future of the UK SITS market and identifies where he thinks the growth will come from.
He says, "recession usually anticipates 'step' technological change and we think this downturn will be no different. We expect the next phase of SITS growth to be mainly built around 'the mobile user' - where the distinction between the consumer and corporate user will be ever more blurred. The explosive growth of mobile internet devices (MIDs), from smartphones though to netbooks, will drive an insatiable demand for a huge variety of 'rich' content anytime, anywhere, on any device and at lightning speed."
Even though we all naturally just want Holway to be calling it right, there's good reason to believe that this could happen. Even though firms will are cancelling upgrades and sweating assets until they drop, when things needs to get replaced it is almost certain that the replacement technology will involve some form of mobile business enabling technology.
For example, desktops will almost certainly be replaced with laptops for many staff and new phones will incorporate mobile email functionality as standard. By doing this workers will be more productive in more places. And that's what mobile business is all about
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