The major affluent tech markets are maturing, with sales getting more sluggish by the years. Undoubtedly, the new growth markets will be those of China, India, Thailand, Brazil, and so on. With the masses in such countries getting richer, a golden opportunity presents itself in the developing world for tech companies to cash in on the new big wave. Business Week describes the new opportunities:
During the first 50 years of the info-tech era, about 1 billion people have come to use computers, the vast majority of them in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. But those markets are maturing. Computer industry sales in the U.S. are expected to increase just 6% per year from now to 2008, according to market researcher IDC. To thrive, the industry must reach out to the next 1 billion customers. And many of those people will come not from the same old places but from far-flung frontiers like Shanghai, Cape Town, and Andhra Pradesh. “The robust growth opportunities are clearly shifting to the developing world,” says Paul A. Laudicina, managing director at management consultant A.T. Kearney Inc.
Read: Tech’s Future [BusinessWeek]