Australia’s software market is bouncing back, but analysts say growth will be slow for at least the next three years.
By that point, however, the market will top $5.6 billion according to an IT software forecast by analyst firm, Ovum.
It claims the IT software market in Australia and New Zealand will grow by more than 4.8 per cent this year. The growth coincides with better than expected growth across the global IT market, which Gartner says will grow by 4.6 per cent growth to $3.8 trillion, up from its previous prediction of 3.3 per cent.
Spending fell globally by 8.9 per cent last year, according to research firm, Forrester.
Forrester also predicts an upturn this year in IT spend across the private and sectors, buoyed in part by economic growth in Australia and the Asia Pacific. It claimed a rise in global spending of about 8.1 per cent to more than $2 trillion, with a 7.8 per cent rise across the Asia Pacific.
Analysts have backed Canada as the biggest IT growth region this year with an increase in spending of about a 9.9 per cent.
Forrester analyst, Andrew Bartels, went as far to say the technology downturn of the last two years was "unofficially over".
According to the Ovum report, it will take at least three years for pre-recession growth to return. Principal analyst, Jens Butler, said Australia is ahead of the world in economic growth.
“The ANZ software market did not suffer a huge drop off in growth during the financial crisis period and these ongoing revenue streams have enabled the major players to be well positioned for the predicted upturn,” Butler said in a written statement.
“Australia and New Zealand [are] currently leading the pack in terms of economic performance and will see further influx of investment.”
Long software contracts safeguarded much of the local software market from the global recession, Ovum says, but the two countries contribute less than 3 per cent to the global market.
Butler noted that Australia is a test-bed for IT software, an idea espoused by other analyst houses including Gartner and IDC.