Recently, IDC Korea, who identifies and analyzes the opportunities, technologies, and trends of the IT market in Korea, issued a report describing their "analysis of Korea’s software market and its future”. In the report they concluded that the software market, which went through hard times during the economic recession of 2009, is expected to pick up this year. IDC bases this assessment on factors which include the consistent recovery of related business and the revitalization of investments by major clients. It also projected that by 2014, the sales of PCs in the global market would increase by 15% and the sales in IT fields would be on the rise in the years ahead.
New-concept devices, such as smart phones, tablets, PCs, 3DTVs, which seem to be pouring into markets and creating a whole new segment of consumers, are boosting sales. IDC predicted that this year’s PC shipments will be in the neighborhood 3.5 billion which is 19.8% more than last year’s. It also expects the growth rate to rapidly recover from last year’s 2.9% due to the global financial crisis.
With sales of mobile PCs, including netbooks and tablet PCs, anticipated to grow, the increase of the mobile PC shipments during the first half of the year was 28.6%. This number represented 3 times the number of desktops sold, which came in at 8.2%. Motivated by Apple's ‘iPad' launch and over 3 million units sold in the first 3 months, competitors like Samsung, LG, and HP are hastily playing catch-up to bring their own tablets to the markets.
Forrester Research gave a bullish outlook on the market saying the tablet PC’s market share, which was only 6% this year, would increase to 18% by 2012 and to 23% by 2015.
The smart phone craze following the iPhone release has had a significant role in the current IT boom, as well. The demand for smart phones, which was 178 million in 2009, is now 230 million and is expected to reach 366 million by 2012. Traditional cellphone giants Samsung, LG, Motorola and RIM are mounting a counterattack against Apple with Android, currently in second place in the race to be the most popular smart phone OS. The demand for smart phones is skyrocketing. Meanwhile, TV markets are being filled with 3D TV fever. DisplaySearch projects that the growth of the 3D TV market will soar from 2.5 million units sold this year to 8.8 million by 2011, 17 million by 2012, 27 million by 2013.
The positive outlook continues. IDC Korea also forecast that investments in software by major clients will increase, and the expanded investment and demand for the domestic software will lead to the continuous recovery of demand through the second half of the year and the next year. “We also anticipate that the once repressed demand in IT investment, which was because of the financial crisis, will now accelerate the economic boom through 2011. “ Meanwhile, however, the latent loss of confidence in the global economy, due to the aggravation of the financial crisis in Europe and the current rocky situation of the U.S stock market, can work against the IT market,” said Stephen Minton, a vice president at IDC. He added, “IT companies should stay fully aware of any potential influence on short-term profit for the next 3 months, and need proper strategies for the contingency.”
All in all, the optimistic longer-term outlook should buoy the industry's collective spirit and carry it through the remainder of the recovery.
