Software industry to grow 11.1%, TDRI
THE SOFTWARE industry is on course to grow 11.1 per cent to Bt61 billion this year, thanks to the government's "digital economy" scheme, the private sector, exports and embedded systems.
Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute and leader of a survey conducted by the Software Industry Promotion Agency and the institute, said yesterday that packaged software would be worth Bt15.9 billion and software services Bt45.1 billion this year.
The market drivers are the increasing usage of software by the private sector and of embedded software by the automobile industry as well as the Internet of Things (IoT).
Software exports to Asean countries such as Laos and Myanmar in the financial, banking and telecom industries and the surge in smartphone and tablet users are also underlying industry growth this year.
Next year, the software market will be 12.8 per cent bigger.
The public-sector market will continue lagging this year, because of the delay of government projects from last year when the political situation was to blame.
Market growth will be supported by the new business software model, which facilitates vertical services in such areas as hotel, retail and human resource management.
Technology trends that will spur the market as a whole are the rises of mobile devices, e-commerce, cloud computing, IoT and wearable devices. They will affect demand and the lifestyles of customers and business.
Last year, the software industry expanded 9.4 per cent to Bt54.9 billion, including Bt15 billion from packaged software and Bt39.9 billion from software services.
The software industry last year was divided into exports valued at Bt4.5 billion and local development to support local software usage worth Bt50.4 billion.
The embedded system software market will reach Bt6.1 billion this year with the auto industry and IoT as the mainstream customers.
