KUALA LUMPUR: The outlook for Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry next year remains positive in line with the recovery in the global economy, say analysts.They say the economic recovery would spur interest in technology among business corporations and small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as they prepare for growth.
In its research note, OSK Research Sdn Bhd said the economic recovery would boost mobile spending.
“We expect mobile revenue to pick up momentum in 2010 as economic activities gather pace,” it said.
Todate, there are over 28 million mobile telephone users in the country.
Despite the ripple effects from the global economic downturn, it said telecommunication stocks were among the least impacted in 2009. His view concurred with that of MIDF Research, which considered 2010 to be a better year for the telecommunications sector.
“While growth is anticipated to be slightly better, but still in the single digit range, we expect more products and service offerings to take advantage of an improving economic outlook,” the firm’s analyst said. In fact, he said, 2010 promised to be a year of new growth for broadband Internet.
For instance, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) would launch its high speed broadband Internet project in the first quarter of next year, marking an exciting milestone for the industry, he added.
Frost and Sullivan had forecast that the local mobile broadband market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27.2 per cent to RM5.2 billion between 2004 and 2009.
OSK Research projected that total broadband subscribers, both wireless and wireline, will hit 2.6 million by year-end but in the third quarter of 2009, the number has already reached 2.35 million subscribers.
Meanwhile, opensourced company Red Hat Asia Pacific country manager Basheer Ali Majeed said there were signs that the worst of the global economic recession was behind us.
He said businesses have emerged from the crisis highly focused and have maximised the value of their ICT budget.
“I believe we will begin to see a continued upturn in business confidence in 2010 and we at Red Hat will continue to help our customers fully capitalize upon their business models by leveraging upon open source technology,” he said.
On the security market, Axis Communication country manager Nafis Jasmani said the market in Malaysia and Asia Pacific would continue to grow, boosted by increasing security concerns as well as continued technology shift from analog to network video.
“With more economies moving to a networked IT infrastructure and high speed broadband implementation, we predict a 40-50 per cent, year-on-year, growth across the country and Asia Pacific next year,” he said.
In terms of consumer technology, Nafis expected more households to adopt network cameras for security and general surveillance.
Meanwhile, Cisco Malaysia managing director Anne Abraham said the role of green IT in accelerating or mitigating climate change and improving bottom lines was set to drive the ICT industry next year. “We anticipate many companies will realign existing business models and embedded green strategies in all aspects of the business to reduce carbon footprint,” she added. — Bernama