AMI Study: SMB IT Spending in Asia-Pac to Reach US$95 Billion This Year
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Infotech spending by small and medium businesses (1-999 employees) is on  track to reach a whopping US$95 billion this year across the  Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan, with three key countries--China,  South Korea and Australia--leading the pack.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. and Japan have the top national environments for their IT industries to grow and flourish, including intellectual-property protections and IT infrastructure, according to a study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Wednesday. The study, conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), ranked 64 nations on several factors, such as PC ownership, broadband adoption, government regulation, enrollment in higher education, IT employment, research and development spending, and cybercrime laws. Using 25 weighted factors, the EIU ranked the U.S. first in IT competitiveness and Japan second. Also in the top five: South Korea, the U.K., and Australia. India ranked 46th out of 64 countries included in the study, while China ranked 49th. Iran, Nigeria, and Azerbaijan were the bottom three on the list. While several members of the U.S. Congress have voiced worries about U.S. competitiveness in recent months, the nation stacks up well in all six umbrella categories, said Denis McCauley, EIU's director of global technology research. The U.S. has a robust IT infrastructure and skilled workers, he said. "Still, the U.S. is a magnet for talent overseas," he added. But the U.S. faces several challenges, he added. The U.S. government lacks a national policy to increase broadband adoption, and attempts to allow increased immigration have stalled, McCauley said. "There's no getting around the U.S. has great strengths," he said. "By the same token, I'd say there are some risks for the U.S., and one of the risks is being complacent. There's valid worry about slippage." India and China rank relatively low in the study because of a lack of intellectual-property protections and because in per capita rankings, the two countries are low in areas such as PC ownership and research investment, McCauley said. IT infrastructure in the two countries is limited to urban areas, he added. "They need to do a much better job of diffusing [IT] to more of the population," he said. China and India's low labor costs gained the countries advantages, but in the future, they will face wage competition from such nationsÂ as Vietnam, Brazil, and Russia, McCauley added. Few countries have been able to overcome major legal and infrastructure weaknesses to jump start their IT industries, and China and India need to improve their other factors as their cost advantages erode, he said. Countries most likely to move up in the rankings are "skills-rich" nations that can develop niche IT industries, the study said. In addition to Vietnam, Brazil and Russia, other likely movers include Malaysia, Estonia, Lithuania and Chile, the study said. Estonia ranked 25th, while Vietnam ranked 61st. BSA commissioned the study to set a benchmark that governments could use to improve their IT competitiveness, said Robert Holleyman, the BSA's president and CEO. "We find governments around the world that want to know what they can do to enhance their competitiveness," Holleyman said. "This will be a great survey to provide a government official not only in the U.S., but internationally."
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Strong demand from emerging markets and the introduction of more low-cost laptops will boost Intel&#39;s sales in Asia during 2008, but company executives are keeping a close eye on the U.S. economy for signs of a slowdown.&quot;Overall, I&#39;m optimistic about growth in Asia, but it would be imprudent not to be cautious and mindful of the economic situation in the U.S.,&quot; said Navin Shenoy, general manager of Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific operations, during a telephone interview.Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific sales include chips sold for use in Asia as well as products that are built into computers for export to other regions. As a result, regional executives are closely watching what happens in the U.S., where concerns are mounting that the economy is headed for a recession.&quot;The export business that&#39;s dependent on the United States might see a bit of a slowdown, but the bulk of the growth is coming from [Asian] consumption. The consumption that we see across Asia-Pacific is quite strong and I see no impact or slowdown there whatsoever at this point in time,&quot; Shenoy said.&quot;But we&#39;re going to watch it. We&#39;re going to watch it carefully,&quot; he said.Analyst firm IDC expects Asian PC shipments to grow 16.7 percent this year, compared to an increase of 3 percent in the U.S.&quot;We&#39;ve pretty much been assuming no major impact [on PC demand] from the subprime crisis in the U.S.,&quot; said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, adding that the market research firm is monitoring economic developments in the U.S.Intel is coming off a strong fourth quarter, despite being squeezed somewhat by lower-than-expected flash memory prices. Strong processor demand during the period helped push Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific revenue to US$5.3 billion, a quarterly record and about half of the company&#39;s total sales.&quot;Demand on the CPU side was strong. We set a record in terms of CPU shipments [and] we set a record for chipsets,&quot; Shenoy said.Most of Intel&#39;s processor revenue during the period came from 65-nanometer chips. The first chips from Intel&#39;s 45-nanometer processor lineup, called Penryn, were introduced in November and made a &quot;nominal&quot; contribution to Asia-Pacific revenue during the fourth quarter, Shenoy said.That contribution will increase rapidly over the next several months, with Intel&#39;s shipments of 45-nanometer processors to surpass those of 65-nanometer chips during the third quarter, he said.Two upcoming Intel products, Silverthorne and Canmore, should also make their presence felt in Asia this year, Shenoy said.Silverthorne, which is produced using the same 45-nanometer manufacturing process, is the first chip designed by Intel to be used in low-cost laptops and will be available during the second half of the year. Currently, Intel offers a version of its aging Celeron M processor for these types of machines, such as Asustek&#39;s popular Eee PC.Silverthorne, which is intended to be inexpensive and easy on battery life, will appear in low-cost notebooks that should spur faster growth in Asian demand for mobile computers, Shenoy said.The other chip that Intel expects to see do well in Asia is Canmore, a system-on-chip announced during the Consumer Electronics Show that combines a processor with graphics and high-definition video capabilities. Designed for set-top boxes and other consumer electronics, Canmore is due during the second half of this year.&quot;There are tremendous opportunities for a product like that in countries like Taiwan and Korea,&quot; Shenoy said.One technology that isn&#39;t expected to make much headway in Asia this year is WiMax.Apart from South Korea, where WiMax is already in commercial use, the wireless broadband technology hasn&#39;t caught on much in Asia. As a result, WiMax products will not see widespread adoption in the region until 2009, Shenoy said.
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Businesses are starting to sour on Asia and turning to Latin America and the U.S. for IT services.
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SBC Communications (SBC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) expects to spend about $5 billion over the next three years to build and connect consumers to a high-speed
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IT spending is forecast to grow in the high single-digits next year and remain on that pace through 2008, according to two reports released Monday by Forrester Research.
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U.S. government spending on information technology is spiking this quarter, a study reports.
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that is, in other countries such as China and India. According to an IDC study, China&#39;s IT growth is expected to be 15% annually and India&#39;s about 20%.
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The network service provider is spending $34 million on the dial-up Internet access business.
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China's software and IT services sector is on track to catch and exceed the U.K.'s output in as little as five years, according to a new report.
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After years of hearing that investing in IT was a smart strategic plan, business executives seem to have gotten the message, according to a new Gartner CIO survey released today -- but only when the dollars are going to technology efforts that have visible benefits for the bottom line, primarily externally facing initiatives involving customers or partners.
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IBM&#39;s homegrown server processor, the Power5, continues its migration across an ever-widening range of systems; this time making its way to machines aimed at the upper edges of the SMB market, especially those firms in retail, finance, banking, and health
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- New research from Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) predicts that spending on IT goods, services, and staff will grow 7 percent in 2005 and continue at a similar pace through 2008
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US IT spending will grow by seven per cent next year, according to a study out yesterday from IT analysts Forrester Research. Forrester predicts that spending on IT goods, services, and staff will remain at seven per cent over the next three years.
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Networking giant Cisco Systems this week announced plans for increased investment in Asia, including a new research and development facility in China and a venture investment program in India.
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The latest Tech Poll from CIO Magazine indicates that IT spending next year will rise -- but not as fast as CIOs thought earlier this year. A separate study from Equs Group Inc. paints a rosier IT spending picture.
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InfoWorld - China&#39;s software and IT services sector is on track to catch and exceed the U.K.&#39;s output in as little as five years, according to a new report.