German IT market adjusts to changing use patterns, but will employ 10,00 more people by the year-end The German ICT market is set to show growth of 1.6% in 2014, says IT trade association BITKOM. It will, however, create 10,000 jobs. Based on current forecasts by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), BITKOM confirms its forecast from the spring, but suggests a significant shift in the overall market in the past six months.
The downward trend in the PC market is stopped, it says, while at the same time the growth has slowed in smartphones and tablets. "When we speak of a growth of the ICT market by 1.6% this year, then that's an average. We see, as in previous years, considerable differences between the segments," says BITKOM President Prof. Dieter Kempf. So IT hardware and software is set to increase by almost 6% while sales of consumer electronics, telecommunications services and telecommunications terminal equipment fell slightly.
Information technology remains the most important pillar of growth and sets according to the BITKOM forecast this year by 4.3% to €77.8bn. Sales of software rise sharply by 5.6% to €19.1bn. In IT services, the growth of + 2.7 percent to €36.3bn is slightly lower.
"This is particularly evident in the project-based IT business, the general economic slowdown noticeable. If it's not quite as going well, IT projects are often postponed, "said Kempf. Surprisingly strong, however was IT hardware with a sales increase of 5.8% to €22.4bn. Here, unlike in previous years, is has not been tablets as the sales driver, but the classic PCs. For desktop PCs, the growth is expected to be 12.2% to €2.6bn, while notebooks see 11.2% growth to €3.5bn.
The weaker consumer electronics saw the rapid decline of the previous year slowed. In this segment, revenues are expected to be a 1.5% decline to €10.6bn after a decline of 14.8% in the previous year. Kempf: "In addition to a stabilization of the TV business, thanks to technological innovations such as ultra-HD as well as the positive pulse by the football World Cup and the strong sales increase of almost 25% for game consoles has made a contribution."
In telecommunications, BITKOM this year again saw a slight decline of 0.9% to €65bn. Telecommunications infrastructure shows growth of 3.8% to €6.3bn. These figures reflect the high investment of network operators in broadband expansion reflect.
Smartphones had a high turnover of €8.3bn, an increase of 1.7% down from two years ago, when it was almost 39%. "Almost as much money was spent in Germany on smartphones as on desktop PCs, laptops and tablets together, "said Kempf.
In terms of employment BITKOM expects an increase of 10,000 jobs and a new record of 953,000 workers in the ICT sector at the end of the year. Employment growth will be driven primarily by the IT vendors, expected to employ 743,000 people in Germany at the end. Telecommunications is expected to decline to a low of 202,000 employees. "Overall, the ICT companies have created 100,000 new jobs in the last five years," Kempf said. "Assuming a stable overall economy, the job growth will continue in the coming years."