Grim outlook for U.S IT spending

[OhioChick]

New study finds that U.S. companies are pulling back hard on IT spending as the economic downturn continues

August 27, 2008

U.S. companies are pulling back hard on IT spending as the economic downturn continues, a new study by ChangeWave Research has found.

ChangeWave surveyed 1,947 people involved with IT spending in their organizations. The survey was conducted Aug. 11-21. Eighty percent of those surveyed were located in the U.S., along with small percentages in Canada and other countries.

Thirty percent overall reported that third-quarter IT spending was lower than previously planned, an increase of three percentage points since ChangeWave's May spending survey. Meanwhile, only 12 percent spent more than planned.

In addition, 29 percent said spending will drop or even cease in the fourth quarter, a 5 percent increase over the last study. Thirteen percent plan to spend more.

"Thus, the brief period of stabilizing we picked up in May has given way to another major leg downward," ChangeWave director of research Paul Carton wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "In fact, you have to go way back to the middle of the last recession (August 2001) to find a ChangeWave survey projecting this big of an IT spending downturn."

Higher energy costs stood as a top factor for the spending slowdown, cited by 35 percent of respondents.

ChangeWave's findings show a turnaround is not imminent; 39 percent of respondents predicted IT spending in their companies would not rise until the second quarter of 2009 or beyond.


http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/27/Grim_outlook_for_US_IT_spending_1.html

[lapfog_1]

1. My company's biggest selling point right now

is reduced power consumption ("going green"). Every feature of new chips we produce (islands within the chip) can be powered down individually when not in use.

We are talking about going from 60 watts or 40 watts down to 3 watts. Multiply this by dozens of chips in each system, and dozens to hundreds of systems... that's some real power savings. Like turning off 1000's of incandescent light bulbs (plus the cooling required).

If it weren't for these innovations, I think we would be sucking right now.

[ihavenobias]

2. K & R

[mainegreen]

3. Depends on the area.

We're finding some areas like automation and integration are doing well.
Hardware sales, after being slow for a while, are stagnant now. And a lot of companies are skipping upgrade cycles. If it works, why upgrade?