"These emerging countries are among the fastest growing IT markets in world -- and we're investing to capture growth," Mark Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer, told analysts during a Wednesday conference call to discuss the vendor's latest financial results for the three months ended June 30.
IBM revenues from these emerging countries grew 25 per cent in the second quarter and IBM expects these revenues to double over the next four years.
"Our strategies to focus on higher growth emerging countries are paying off. Asia was our strongest contributor to revenue, up double-digits. Our ASEAN and South Asia region was up over 50
per cent, led by India," Loughridge said.
In the area of strategic outsourcing, IBM saw particularly strong revenue growth in India with an increase of nearly 150 per cent.
Looking at IBM's services business as a whole in India, Loughridge was extremely bullish. "We're beating the local competition on their own turf," he said, citing deals with Bharti Telecom, and Idea Cellular.
"This quarter, the momentum continued as we signed agreements with the Delhi Airport, the Indian Tax Authority, and additional scope with Idea Cellular. In fact a recent IDC study ranks IBM Global Services as the largest domestic IT services provider in India."
