Fri, Feb 10 2012

Bulgaria’s IT market loses momentum

Mon, Apr 27 2009 07:37 CET

byDnevnik.bg

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Bulgaria’s IT market loses momentum

After years of robust growth pace, the Bulgarian IT market will slow down and register a modest single-digit rise in 2009 provided that general elections bring no surprises and that the country’s gross domestic product does not stray more than one per cent away from 2008 levels, even though IMF forecast points to a 3.5 per cent slump, showed data by IDC Bulgaria.

The IT market added up to $1.17 billion in 2008. The bulk of it, or 71 per cent, is hardware sales, followed by software (15 per cent) and services (14 per cent). The software segment will hold ground in 2009 betting on flexible solutions such as rented software. The Bulgarian IT sector will buck the uptrend in central and eastern Europe (CEE) taking a slide in 2010.

Bulgaria’s computer market was the fastest growing in CEE last year adding a staggering 48.8 per cent versus the region’s average of 10.9 per cent. PC sales rose by 3.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 under preliminary data.

Portable computer sales zoomed by 85.8 per cent in 2008 with laptops biting nearly 60 per cent off the entire computer market. PC sales grew by a humble 16.4 per cent last year.

Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba were top performers commanding 51.5 per cent of the market.

Despite the healthy growth over the past three years, some IT market players may face serious challenges in 2009. Hardware assemblers who have not inked contracts with big electronics and computer retailers are in for the biggest trouble. The global economic crisis will hit big vendors as well. They will have to either cut prices or lose market share, a choice that will be crucial for their long-term operations. However, the difficulties will boost competition and push unfit players out of the market.

Households are likely to be the largest IT equipment and software consumer in 2009, followed by small businesses. Large corporations, state institutions and education programmes will spend less on IT equipment, a trend which will continue at least through 2012, according to IDC.

Source: Dnevnik.bg

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