With Forrester Research predicting that close to 50% of large South African companies say that their IT budgets will be higher than last year`s - and with the looming deregulation of the telecommunications market - 2005 is poised to be a bumper year for the IT industry, and sales of PCs and notebooks are likely to increase by double-digit figures.
This is according to Christopher Riley, CEO of the notebook and accessories retailer, The Notebook Company. "Distributors and resellers appear very bullish about the prospects for 2005 and many are alluding to sales increases that could breach 15%. We are penciling in a 15-20% increase in sales for the calendar year here at The Notebook Company," said Riley. "In fact," he quipped, "those companies who fail to make money this year should consider another line of business."
Meanwhile, Gartner reported that worldwide mobile sales surpassed 167 million units in the third quarter of 2004, a 26% increase from 2003`s third quarter figures.
"Growth in this sector is usually good for notebook sales as it points to an increasing need for workers to work remotely and wirelessly. "
But Riley disagreed slightly with a recent report by Forrester Research that alleged that 91% of SA companies said during last year that they would be making PC purchases by the end of 2004. "I suspect that figure may be a bit over-zealous. With the increasing move to go mobile I believe the trend is for companies to invest more heavily in laptops."
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