Scoping the global market: size is just part of the story

The IT market is changing so quickly that it's hard to keep pace. This concern is what motivated a recent study conducted by the International Data Corp. (IDC) and published by the World Information and Technology and Services Alliance. WITSA-a consortium of 35 IT trade associations worldwide-wanted more than market estimates. Its members wanted hard data on size and impact of the IT industry-details like the number of computers being used, the total IT investment companies made both inside and outside their walls, and the effect of that investment on individual countries worldwide. The resulting publication, Digital Planet-The Global Information Economy, provides measurements from 1992 to 1997 for the global IT industry with details for the 50 largest countries. Collectively, they represent 98 percent of the world's spending on IT and 97 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). The Digital Planet study is unique in several respects. It is the first to look at IT's influence from a global perspective, to measure internal spending on IT, and to examine IT's social and economic effects. It is also the first to use hard data and consistent definitions on such a large scale.