This year, the Polish IT market revenues are expected to grow by around 3.3 percent to nearly PLN 25 billion, while a year later it may see two-digit growth rate. The growth will mainly be driven by the improved macroeconomic factors and higher demand from corporations, according to a PMR report. The value of the IT market in Poland stood at PLN 24.2 billion in 2009, having dropped by 10.1 percent year-on-year.

 

In the first half of 2009, IT market revenues were expected to fall by 8 percent. Overall, PMR expected the market to be worth PLN 0.5 billion more in nominal terms. The hardware sector declined by one-fifth, as expected. The significant decrease in the sector of PCs and display units in 2008 was sharpened by the breakdown in the sector of portable computers in 2009.

 

The reduced demand, especially in the first six months of 2009, was accompanied by rising prices of imported hardware, which resulted from the unfavourable dollar exchange rate. IT spending by private households and SMBs is steadily growing, and the tendency is reinforced by the crisis. However, large corporations are still the major customers, as their IT expenditure is of primary importance for the IT sector in Poland.

 

In 2009, most study respondents said that the Polish IT market declined. Bu contract, this year, over 83 percent of the industry players expect it to grow by 7 percent on average (13 percent in 2011). The study also indicates that hardware was the segment most severely hit by the crisis, and will be the segment most actively recouping the losses in 2010 and 2011.

 

Business customers, who used to put off new hardware acquisitions, will increase their spending on new computer products now. Thus, throughout 2010 and 2011, hardware will grow at the relatively highest pace, compared to software and IT services. However, during the next 3-4 years the segments of IT services and software will most likely outperform hardware, which will slow down after the two years of stronger growth.

 

The slowdown will be caused by the fact that households will become saturated with computer hardware and by the growing price pressure – these factors will contribute to weaker sales results in value terms, despite higher sales volumes. The largest IT companies in Poland still believe that the strongest stimuli for growth of the Polish IT industry are improving economic situation in Poland and the world and the EU funds earmarked for IT projects. On the other hand, more respondents (3 percentage points more compared to the previous edition of the survey) mentioned the development of new technologies and services as a major growth driver.