The Indian IT market is expected to grow by 18 per cent in the year 2008 to reach $38 billion, clocking second highest growth after Chinese (20 per cent growth to touch $138 billion in size. According to a latest report from technology market research firm Forrester, this double-digit growth is a welcome news for technology vendors - who see slackness in the US and European markets, and advises them to now recognize India as a consumer of IT than just a supplier.

The report -The State Of A-PAC Enterprise Technology Adoption: 2008, gives highlights of data collected from 777 companies across the Asia Pacific region via Forrester's Enterprise Technology Adoption Survey.

These 777 companies were of the 1000 plus employee size from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, and Hong Kong.

Forrester's Sr. Analyst, Jonathan Brown, who authored the report says, "The IT sector has long looked to India for top-drawer technology talent. But India is poised to become an increasingly important market for technology vendors as its population comes of age (half of India's population today is under 20), its rural areas become increasingly developed, and its engagement with the US increases. It's time the tech vendors no longer treat India as merely a skilled talent pool but also as a lucrative market in its own right."

The report states that though Asia Pacific economies are closely connected to each other through trade and cross investment, they differ enormously in their levels of economic development and the states of their IT infrastructure, and licensing models in favor of SaaS. Brown advises technology vendors to tap Japan for services rather than software, and be cautious in Chinese market and asks them to first determine what IT will not do with as much clarity as they describe what IT will do while in China.