Software sales growth is slowing - to less than half that of last year.

Spending has climbed by just six per cent in the first half of 2001 according to analysts Gartner Dataquest. Last year worldwide software spending increased by 18 per cent.

For all of 2001, new licence revenues are expected to rake in $77 billion, a growth of just less than seven per cent.

In the US, businesses had been cautious about stumping up cash for IT projects, even before the 11 September attack on the US. Joanne Correia, Gartner VP for software research, now expects the incident to "intensify the economic slowdown impacting the global software industry for the next 18 months."

Markets that will be slow to buy software include the airlines, travel, motor, insurance and new consumer PC segments, she forecasts. Security, network storage and systems management will be more fertile areas. ®