The following are IDC's top 10 predictions:

1. China and India continues to lead the pack as the next opportunity - emerging Asia - approaches BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)-like growth rates

GDP growth in China and India are predicted to hit 8.3 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively. As economic growth rates cool slightly, these countries will be pushed to look at domestic markets as recent years of prosperity drive IT infrastructure build-out and the closing of domestic urban/rural gaps. These developments will require vendors to have very deep sub-regional local knowledge to extract big wins in these markets. Further, Emerging Asian Countries (EACs) - Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam will see spending power and IT infrastructure budgets accelerate to approach similar growth rates of BRIC.

2. Eastern heroes emerge to capture regional and global software markets

The rise of 'Eastern Heroes' includes the likes of UFIDA Software Co. Ltd.'s UFSoft, Kingdee International Software Group Co. Ltd., Mincom Ltd., Ahnlab Inc., and Rising Software Australia Pty Ltd. to take the lead will give more established global vendors a run for their money. These firms have regional and even global ambitions, particularly in the underserved SMB markets. They are bolstered by their belief that they have far more practical experience to integrate into their solutions and hence able to build applications that are simple to roll out and easy to manage.