The Bulgarian IT market reached $873.25 mln in 2007, shows data of market research company IDC.

'The local market bears all the hallmarks of the wider regional marketplace, getting a tailwind from strong economic growth and the volume of the incoming foreign direct investment,' said IDC Bulgaria manager Neli Vacheva.

Bulgaria's EU entry alone added 2-3% to the market volumes, said Vacheva.

Almost all market segments rose in excess of 10% in 2007 with software and network equipment the only product categories failing to quite match that momentum.

A 66% surge in laptop sales has put the overall computer devices market on a pace faster than earlier forecasts.

Notebooks will continue to be the main driver but their share of IT sales in terms of value will drop from 61% in 2007 to 54% this year.

In terms of volume, laptops accounted for 46.6% of the 2007 market, followed by desktops with 50.1% and servers with 1.4%.

A total of 330,000 computers sold in Bulgaria last year, a figure that includes 170,000 desktops and 156,000 laptops.

Domestic printer sales topped $21.5 mln in terms of value and 92,000 units in terms of volume.

Copier, printer and scanner all-in-one devices already have half of the market with sales of 77,000 units for $27.2 mln.

The software market was valued at $76.75 mln in 2007 with Enterprise Resource Planning solutions posting a double-digit growth.

IDC forecasts the local telecommunications market will vault past the $2 bln mark in 2008.

Telecom services dominate the market with a 90% share. The market share of fixed-line voice services continues to erode as datacasting revenues increase.

IDC estimates the landline market share of incumbent telco BTC at 95%.

Fixed-line broadband access rose 30% in 2007, said IDC

Broadband penetration, enabled by BTC's ADSL network, the domestic cable, LAN and WiMAX operators, is measured by IDC at 7%

Source: http://news.dnevnik.bg/