The IT market in Bosnia and Herzegovina continued to grow in 2008, albeit at a slower pace than in the year before. According to a recent report by IDC, total IT spending reached $212 million, representing year-on-year growth of 9.7% in U.S. dollars. Measured in local currency, the market expanded 2.6% in 2008, compared to a 3.5% growth in 2007. IDC expects IT spending in Bosnia and Herzegovina to grow at an average annual rate of 3.9% over the next five years, to reach a value of $257 million in 2013.

“IT spending in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year did not reflect the country’s healthy economic growth,” says Dalibor Suboticanec, Research Analyst, IDC Adriatics. “The absence of more dynamic growth can be attributed to a lack of IT strategy and projects at the national level, of which the country’s complex political structure is partially to blame. The prevalence of non-IT-intensive industries and persistently high unemployment put additional drag on the development of the IT market.”

As in 2007, the fastest growing segment of the IT market in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2008 was IT services, which expanded 21.3% year on year, to reach nearly $42 million. The second most dynamic segment was software, with 17.2% growth from the year before. PC shipments were up 20.1% year on year, to 88,165 units. Within this market, notebook shipments surged 56.5%, while shipments of desktop PCs and x86 servers grew 6.6% and 31.8%, respectively. Hardcopy peripherals shipments grew 6.5%, to just over 70,000 units.

“Although growing relatively fast for three years in a row, IT services and software spending in Bosnia and Herzegovina had a low combined share of overall IT spending in 2008,” says Suboticanec. “This is because Bosnia and Herzegovina is still in the basic infrastructure phase of IT development, and IT consumption is centered on personal computers, peripherals, general business applications, and Internet access.“

IDC’s Bosnia and Herzegovina IT Market 2009-2013 Forecast and 2008 Vendor Shares (IDC #ESQ12R9) presents the IT market in Bosnia and Herzegovina and forecasts total IT expenditure by technology through 2013. The study contains market size, vendor market shares, and growth projections for hardware and packaged software shipments, as well as IT services provision.