IT Markets and the Recession

Of all the industries in todays market that were negatively impacted by the recession, the one that bounced back the fastest was Information Technology. Now the IT industry, like most industries had global double digit percentage drop in revenue in the 4th quarter of 2008. All nations except for Japan, which managed an increase of 4.3% had suffered decline. The worst hit areas of the world included Europe, the Middle East and Africa with more than 20% declining in each region. The semiconductor sector is not expected to make a comeback to where it once was until at least late 2012. This is based partly on the fact that the semiconductor sector didn’t make it back to where it was for four years after the dot com bubble in 2001.

Despite this gloomy outlook, the Information Technology industry has a few key things going for it. Software by and large was affected little by the recession, quick to recover, and was soon developing programs video games that were outgrossing many Hollywood movies. The hardware sector, although slower to return to revenue increases the was quick to react and make changes that the industry needed to blossom, with cheaper hardware that is easier to use for a recession consumer.