3. New Zealand IT Market
The information in this section is taken from a 1999 survey of IT firms conducted by Statistics New Zealand (Statistics New Zealand 2000b) and applies to the financial year. For more information about the survey see the previous section, Software and Services Exports. Data for 1998 have been revised since the previous report, as more accurate information has become available (similar revisions were also made in previous years).
The total value of the New Zealand IT industry (excluding telecommunications) is $6,030 million, up 7.2% from the previous year. Figures for telecommunications services are excluded from the survey for confidentiality reasons. However, if information is imputed from the Telecom New Zealand annual report, the total is $9,464 million, compared with $9,020 million in 1998 (up 4.9%).
These gross figures include an unknown level of double counting of retail and wholesale sales. Consequently, the data used in Figure 3.1 represents goods and services sold to end users only and, in 1999, exclude $1,826 million reported in the survey as "other customer sales".
Figure 3.1 New Zealand end user computer hardware, software and services market (NZ$ millions)
The Single User Hardware category refers to complete computers intended for use by only one person at any one time and so mainly comprises desktop and laptop PCs and Macintoshes. Multi User Hardware refers to computers intended for use by many people at the same time and includes file servers, midrange systems and mainframes. Parts of computer systems (other than the CPU) when sold separately appear under Peripherals. The split between Software and Computer Services is unreliable because of the difficulty of accounting for software maintenance revenue.
Table 3.1 Changes in end user sales since 1995 (percent)
| | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Computer h/w: single-user systems | -1.9 | -12.4 | 3.5 | 5.2 |
| Computer h/w: multi-user systems | 27.5 | -5.8 | -0.2 | 1.4 |
| Peripheral computer equipment | -3.5 | -5.7 | 11.6 | 0.6 |
| Communications hardware and cables | 26.5 | 15.9 | -7.8 | -18.9 |
| Software sales | 2.9 | -13.9 | 27.7 | 20.8 |
| Computer services | 15.3 | 4.5 | 13.7 | 17.1 |
| Training and education in IT | 39.5 | 2.4 | -1.3 | 41.1 |
| Total New Zealand end-user sales | 12.3 | -0.9 | 7.9 | 8.1 |
Sales in the New Zealand IT market rose by 8% in the 1999 financial year, which is similar to 1998. Increases occurred in all categories except communications hardware and cables, with an increase of 41% in training and education in IT, following two years of little or no growth. The strong growth in sales of software and computer services in 1998 have continued on into 1999. In 1998, Statistics New Zealand attributed Y2K compliance and a shift away from computer hardware selling into computer service sales as contributing to these trends.
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