Hardware sales will increase by just over 2% annually between 2002 and 2006, the latest Aberdeen Group market forecast has proposed, with the expectation that in the same time frame IT services take up will show a 5% growth clip eclipsed only by software sales, which will see an 8.3% annual rate of compound growth.

The figures are cited in Aberdeen's World IT Spending review, which attempts to measure the incremental recovery in the technology sector over the next three years. Currently, IT sales in the US are calculated to run to $482bn or around 4% of the gross domestic product. This makes it by far the single largest market with three times the expenditure of Japan, the next biggest spender.

Increased infrastructural efficiency, together with steady improvements in price/performance will slow the growth of hardware markets, the researchers said. However, strong demand will come from the uptake of software suites by small and medium-size businesses, who over the next couple of years will start to roll out enterprise application suites and then look for external integration expertise and professional services support.

Between 2002 and 2006, Boston, Massachusetts-based Aberdeen estimates that hardware expenditure will increase by 8.3%, while software and services is slated to increase by 27.2% and 17.7%.

© ComputerWire