A Gartner study finds that IT spending has so far been largely unaffected, despite the ongoing signs of weakness in the U.S. and global economies.

On a global basis, the projected IT budget growth rate for 2008 is 3.3 percent, unchanged from a previous Gartner survey.

In the U.S., budgets are still growing, at 2.3 percent, but that represents a drop from 3.1 percent in the last study.

Meanwhile, the growth rate in Europe was 3.86 percent and 5.98 percent in Asia-Pacific, Gartner said.

Overall, "rumors of IT budgets' demise, especially in the first quarter, have been greatly exaggerated," said Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research for Gartner Executive Programs, during a conference call Thursday.

The survey drew responses from 1,011 CIOs between Feb. 12 and Mar. 12, according to Gartner. McDonald noted that respondents were from end-user corporations, not vendors or technology service providers.

Some 62 percent of respondents said their 2008 IT budgets did not change, while 23 percent reported a drop and 15 percent said their budgets grew. On average, declining budgets did so by an average of 10 percent. However, report budget increases were about 15 percent, according to Gartner.

"We believe enterprises and CIOs are being cautious about IT spending, but not wholesale cutting," McDonald said.

"IT budgets have been modest for the past four or five years, and that modesty is paying off, because they're not as rich for targeting," he added.

Gartner also polled respondents on whether they had a spending contingency plan in place. Only 32 percent said they had one for this year.

"The contingency analysis seems to indicate that while CIOs are prepared to weather tougher economic times, the majority don't think they'll have to," McDonald said.

Top tier anti-virus vendors including McAfee, Trend Micro, and Sophos all failed to secure Windows Vista SP1 in recent independent tests.…

Financial backing for Sprint Nextel's high-speed wireless WiMax Xohm service may still be questionable, but Motorola, still sees a strong WiMax market with or without Sprint in the mix.

"WiMax will happen with or without the backing of Sprint," said Daniel Moloney, president of home and networks mobility for Motorola, the division that oversees WiMax products in an interview on Wednesday. "There's a huge global market for this technology." Motorola makes products that Sprint is deploying in its Xohm trials and rollout, and is already providing WiMax gear for rollouts in other countries.

[ Learn about Everex's new low-cost laptops that use the Sprint Xohm WiMax network. ]

Moloney said he was aware of Sprint's efforts to attract cable companies to invest $1.5 billion or more in the Xohm venture, which could cost $5 billion all told. But Moloney said he was not privy to details of what is happening with those discussions, or why some sort of deal was not reached by Monday, a deadline that Sprint imposed on the cable companies involved.

For its part, Sprint won't comment on plans to attract investors, although a source close to the discussions told Computerworld that Sprint had pushed the Monday deadline. Barry West, president of the Xohm division, on Tuesday said he was still optimistic for Xohm service, but said in an interview with IDG News Service on Wednesday that Xohm will slightly miss a target of providing commercial availability in April. He didn't specify what the new target date will be.

West said the delay was largely due to problems setting up Internet links behind the WiMax portions of the network. Trials are underway in Chicago and Washington.

Moloney agreed with many financial analysts who have said it is logical for cable companies to want to invest in WiMax, since doing so gives the cable providers an extension of wireless services to their customers already getting cable services. He said there is already a trend toward cable companies branching into the telecommunications realm as well, combining wired and wireless networks. He pointed, by way of example, to such moves by Telefonica in Madrid and Singtel in Singapore. "There is interest in blending together technologies," he said.

Motorola is interested in producing technologies for both WiMax and LTE (Long Term Evolution), which is expected to be a big WiMax competitor down the road. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is backed by both AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Moloney said.

Moloney said Sprint would itself have likely backed LTE, but could move faster with WiMax, since the latter service could come to market faster and because Sprint already owned the 2.5GHz spectrum that will carry the WiMax signal. "They could deploy today or wait two to three years for LTE," he said.

While Motorola is backing both WiMax and LTE, Moloney said he wanted investors and others to know that WiMax is going to be a strong network technology especially in developing countries such as Pakistan, where one rollout is underway. "I feel good about where WiMax is headed," Moloney said.

The fate of Sprint's Xohm seemed to be on the minds of many other executives at CTIA, including officials at AT&T. Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, was charitable toward Sprint when asked about the fate of Xohm. But he asserted that AT&T will continue to add customers as it develops its networks towards LTE. "WiMax is not a threat," de la Vega told reporters and analysts at a luncheon.

Over the next several years, AT&T official project that its LTE network can achieve 28Mbps speeds -- many times the current rates.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.