Now Available: Australia Information Technology Report Q3 2012

Recently published research from Business Monitor International, "Australia Information Technology Report Q3 2012", is now available at Fast Market Research

by Bill Thompson

(WireNews+Co) - Boston, MA - 17 October 2012

BMI View: Australian IT sales are expected to reach US$21.6bn in 2012, up 4%, with BMI expecting an increase in consumer and business spending. The market should continue to offer opportunities, despite business concerns about the domestic carbon tax and the global economic situation. The government's ambitious broadband plans will drive development of Australia's digital economy and services such as online banking and shopping. Government tenders will drive considerable spending in future in areas such as education, e-government, transport, and healthcare. Growth areas in 2012 will include tablets and demand across market segments to take advantage of opportunities presented by cloud computing.

View Full Report Details and Table of Contents (http://www.fastmr.com/prod/451205_australia_information_technology_report_q3_2012.aspx) (http://www.fastmr.com/prod/451205_australia_information_technology_report_q3_2012.aspx)

Headline Expenditure Projections

- Computer hardware sales: US$9.2bn in 2011 to US$9.4bn in 2012, +1% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged as government programmes should help to shore up demand.
- Software sales: US$3.5bn in 2011 to US$3.7bn in 2012, +7% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged and cloud-based delivery should boost sales of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other e-business products to the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market.
- IT Services sales: US$8.1bn in 2011 to US$8.5bn in 2012, +6.0% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged, with cloud services a growth area as local companies try to use computing resources more effectively.

Risk/Reward Ratings: Australia's score was 73.2 out of 100.0. Australia ranks second in our latest Asia region RRR table, still ahead of larger rivals such as China, India and Indonesia.

Key Trends & Developments

- We expect the growing popularity of tablets to continue in 2012, with shipments reaching around 2mn units. By the end of 2012, it has been forecast that as many as 40% of Australians could be using a tablet PC, with population penetration at around 20%. On this forecast, the diffusion curve of tablets would be steeper than for almost any other consumer electronics product of recent years.
- A significant opportunity will be services that enable the use of cloud computing models such as SaaS and IaaS. Organisations in many industries are keen to drive down costs by using cloud computing models, but one priority for IT services vendors will be to address concerns about cloud security. In 2012 more leading Australian private and public sector organisations are expected to launch cloud initiatives, with surveys indicating that cloud computing is a key priority for Australian CIOs.
- Government subsidies of computers in education will provide support for the market. In 2011, national and state governments continued to roll out new initiatives, and the Victoria government has invested more than US$150mn in IT in schools. New South Wales and Queensland authorities were also rolling out IT for schools projects.

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