IT Industry Continues To Grow

The market for processors and memory chips is expected to grow by 4.6 percent to 314 billion dollars in 2011.

After a good year for the global technology industry, 2011 is likely to follow this upward trend. Whether in hardware or software, for the IT services and semiconductor industry: the growth continues in the coming year, although not as strongly as 2010.

The crisis seems to be finally stood, going by the statistics and the predictions of the renowned market research institutes. The total expenditure in the IT industry expected to reach in previous years almost to the end of the staggering sum of 3.4 trillion dollars. Around half of which related to the telecommunications sector, nearly a quarter in services related to computers and applications.

Apple and Google as protagonists
For sales of computers to market research firm Gartner 2010, an increase makes up 14 percent to 352 million units – a record high. And another 16 percent will increase the number of devices in the coming year. In particular, new mobile computers such as Tablet PCs or netbooks drive the boom continues. Here, provide the currently most important protagonists of the high-tech scene, Apple and Google, a battle for supremacy that goes far beyond the hardware sector also. The sale of the tablet computer is to go up rapidly in 2011 from 19.5 to 54 million units (see the Background: The Duel: Apple and Google on the test of technology stocks).

The high demand for computers and related software comes from private users as well as companies who have increased their investment in information technology in the past year dramatically, and this probably also in 2011 continue to do so are: The market researchers at IDC expect to increase IT budgets by more than five percent in 2011. This sense as software companies such as the Dax-Member SAP, which benefits the sale of new licenses from a sustained rise. Even software giant Microsoft can take the momentum of investment, its operating system Windows 7 has been on the market also well received this year.

The market continues to grow on a smaller scale
The semiconductor industry can hope that 2011 will be another good year. Although reported chip companies such as the U.S. group National Semiconductor recently from a small sales “dip”, which was caused by the reduction of storage capacity of mobile phone companies. But the boom continues, according to experts in the coming year still, to grow, according to Gartner, the market for processors and memory chips by 4.6 percent to 314 billion dollars. These increases, however, that no longer quite as sharply as in 2010: This is an increase of 31.5 percent to 300 billion U.S. dollars expected.

Attack on the smartphone market
On average, namely, an increase of 13.6 percent, over the next year but probably develop the market for mobile chips. No wonder, as the mobile all-rounder, the “smart phones”, provided the industry in the current year regular for a riot: the traditional top dogs of the mobile industry like Nokia have to resist the attacker such as Apple, RIM and Google.

Not all high-tech companies, the year 2010 be a year of success to the hard-throat competition in all areas. Some of the newly arrived companies need for their supremacy (Nokia), or their niche (such as Research in Motion, RIM) fear. But the upstarts, most notably Google, are facing an exciting year – also appear to limit the expansion capability already partially achieved (see our chart series: test for tech stocks).11