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As nations emerge from the grips of a global recession, numerous economic reports reveal some unexpectedly good results from the Asia-Pacific region. The region looks likely to lead the global economic recovery, with a 2010 growth rate forecast at 6.3 percent, the highest in the world.
 
Relative to the Enterprise Software markets, Gartner forecasts this to reach $22.1bn in 2010, a positive 10.2% growth, representing a positive upturn from expected 6.6% growth in 2009.
 
Gartner reviews the top four markets in the region with the following forecasts:
 

• China will continue to lead software demand in the region, with a 12.2 percent growth rate in 2009 and 14.5 percent growth in 2010. Although China's high dependency on exports is significantly impacting its economic growth in 2009, the government's stimulus package cushions the negativity.

• Australia is the next largest market with a 5.4 percent growth rate in 2009 and 8.2 percent growth in 2010. Australia also has the advantage of a well-established IT infrastructure and a well-developed sales and service infrastructure.

• South Korea is still the third largest software market in Asia Pacific. South Korea is a well-developed and IT-savvy market and revenue will come from its large installed base, specifically from maintenance and upgrades.

• India is the fourth largest market in the region with expected growth of 10.1 percent in 2009 and 11.8 percent growth in 2010. While its economy is also impacted by the economic downturn, India has the advantage of being less dependent on exports than China. India's largely untapped market, combined with a strong pool of IT skills, is expected to uphold local software demand.

 
“Asia Pacific will have a more positive outlook compared with other regions such as Europe and North America and, as a result, major vendors will continue to target higher-growth markets in the region,” said Yanna Dharmasthira, Research Director at Gartner. “However, business customers continue to have strong bargaining power in the region. Some Asia Pacific markets have been traditionally more price-sensitive, a situation that is even more pronounced in the downturn. We expect to see more intense vendor competition in Asia Pacific, from multinational vendors as well as prominent local country vendors.”
 
Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Market Trends: Continued Positive Forecast for Asia/Pacific Software Despite Economic Volatility, 2008 – 2013." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1204414