(Length: 20 pages)

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

How is the global tech sector doing? It largely depends on what currency is being used for measurement. As an interim step toward developing its own global IT forecast, Forrester measured the global revenues of 35 large IT vendors in US dollars. We found that the Asia Pacific market is the strongest for vendors, with revenues calculated in a mix of US dollars and Japanese yen likely to grow by 7% in 2005. The Americas is the next strongest market for IT vendors, with a prospect of 6% growth in US dollars for 2005. Vendor revenues in euros for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) are the weakest, with 4% growth for both 2004 and 2005. Thus, exchange rate changes that have favored US IT manufacturers are masking a slow growth period for IT globally. Computer hardware revenues are strongest, especially in Europe; software, IT services, and IT outsourcing revenues are more even by region but are growing moderately; and communications equipment spending is weak in the US but stronger in Europe and Asia.