So far the main buyers of computers in Russia have been corporate clients, says Olavi Filppula,

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director of the Market Visio research company. According to the Gartner research, Russian firms account for 86% of total computer sales in the country, while in West Europe their share is just 70%. However, the traditionally weaker Russian retail market is now growing at an amazing pace, argues Maksim Sorokin, vice president of the National Computer Corporation. On the whole, the Russian IT market has been recently growing by 20-25% a year, while most European markets are either in stagnation or posting annual growth of 5%, he pointed out.

Analysts at the IDC research company do not share the markets optimism. In early 2004, the agency forecast that growth rates would remain the same as last year. The head of the IDC Moscow office, Robert Farish, said it was not going to change the forecast now. "The market is growing steadily, but we do not expect a breakthrough," he explained. "The PC markets growth is restricted by a lack of accessible information for the public from state institutions," he believes, "as a computer is just a tool for processing information."

According to IDC, 3.8 million computers were sold in Russia in 2003, a 26% increase against 2002. In 2002, growth rates reached 18%. According to the International Telecommunication Union, in late 2003 there were 9.97 computers in the world on average per 100 people. In Switzerland, the figure was 70.87 per 100 people, in the U.S., 65.89, in Singapore 62.2, in Russia 8.87 and in Ukraine 1.9.

MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti)