NEWS: Better year predicted for IT vendors

KUALA LUMPUR: Industry researcher IDC expects IT spending by businesses and other users in Malaysia to perk up this year. It predicted an increase to RM6bil by year end — up from the RM5.64bil recorded last year.

It said the rise will be mainly due to pent-up demand caused when companies here postponed purchases in the wake of the global economic slowdown last year.

Roger Ling, IDC Asean research manager for software, said the companies are expected to spend on new hardware, broadband and cloud-computing capabilities.

“Companies want to cut (operating) costs (to increase competitiveness) and are opening up to cloud computing,” he said. Cloud computing enables businesses to use applications off the Web without having to pay licensing fees for each computer the programs run on.

IDC believes local small- and medium-scale enterprises will be particularly drawn to this type of operational savings.

IT spending will also get a boost from the Government’s efforts to increase broadband penetration and its scheme offering 100,000 Internet-capable portable computers to university students at a special price.

Telcos to gain

IDC also predicts that the nation’s telcommunications industry will grow by 4.4% this year, compared to 1.7% last year.

The growth will come from an increased demand for wireless voice and data services, due to the higher penetration of smartphones which are getting cheaper.

“You can get a smartphone for less than RM1,000 these days,” said Lincoln Lee, telecommunications research manager at IDC Asean.

“We see that smartphone shipments will hit 1.8 million units this year, growing by 19.8%. This is close to the double digit growth of 20% the year before,” he said.

This continuing move toward mobile computing will also result in the growth of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) broadband services, said IDC.

“The demand will come from tertiary students, sales staff and residents of new townships,” Lee said.