The new year will see belt-tightening in the IT industry, as many customers look to hold down their technology spending, according to a study from ChangeWave Research.

The investment advice firm's report found that 24 percent of respondents said their organizations planned to increase IT spending in the first quarter of 2008. That figure clashed with the usual seasonal growth found in previous years.

An additional 20 percent said spending will drop or be nonexistent, up 3 percentage points from the last study, in August. Another 51 percent said spending will remain the same.

However, some 17 percent of respondents said they had spent more money than planned so far in the fourth quarter, a finding the report singled out as a relative bright spot.

"We just have a murky corporate IT spending environment," said Paul Carton, ChangeWave's director of research. "This shows why the Fed has to cut interest rates to ease the credit crunch. When credit tightens, the first thing that takes a hit is capital spending, IT spending."

The study also polled respondents on their choice of smart-phone vendors. Research in Motion's BlackBerry was dominant here, with a 73 percent share, up two points from the previous survey. In contrast, Palm fell four points to 19 percent, followed by Motorola with 11 percent. Apple's iPhone gained three points to reach 5 percent market share, but according to ChangeWave this growth is occurring "primarily among small to very small companies."

ChangeWave said 1,964 people involved with IT spending in their companies took part in the study, which was conducted between Nov. 12 and Nov. 23.