A man walks through the Brazil exhibition prior to the opening of the CeBIT IT fair in March 2012 in Hanover. About 99 million computers are currently in use in Brazil, or one for every two of the country's inhabitants, according to a study by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (GVF) released Wednesday.

About 99 million computers are currently in use in Brazil, or one for every two of the country's inhabitants, according to a study by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (GVF) released Wednesday.

The annual study by the Applied Information Technology Center of the GVF's Sao Paulo School of Business Administration, said the figure had doubled in four years.

In 2012, 17.6 million computers are expected to be sold and six years from now, the country will have one computer for each of its estimated 195 million people, it added.

For each computer in the country, there are two television sets and three telephones.

The results placed Brazil well above the world average in terms of computer, telephone and television use, said Professor Fernando Meirelles, who coordinated the study.

The survey, based on 2,180 responses from large and medium enterprises, also found that companies spend and invest seven percent of their earnings on information technology, a percentage that doubled in 12 years.

The Microsoft operating system continues to dominate companies' workstations with 91 percent or more of the total.

Brazil also ranks as the largest e-commerce market in Latin America, with an online population of 78.5 million, according to data from the pollster Ibope Nielsen Online.

Online commerce in Brazil grossed more than $11 billion last year, up 26 percent over the previous year, the market research firm e-bit said last month.

(c) 2012 AFP