According to Gartner, global IT spending is expected to increase from $3.6 trillion in 2012 to $3.7 trillion in 2013, registering an increase of 4.2 per cent.
Richard Gordon, managing vice-president, Gartner, says, “Uncertainties surrounding prospects for an upturn in global economic growth are the major retardants to IT growth. This uncertainty has caused the pessimistic business and consumer sentiment throughout the world. However, much of this uncertainty is nearing resolution, and as it does, we look for accelerated spending growth in 2013 compared to 2012.”
Gartner estimates that global spending on devices, such as PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers would be worth $666 billion in 2013, registering an increase of 6.3 per cent from 2012.
However, there has been a significant decline in the outlook for 2013. The long-term forecast for worldwide spending on devices has also declined, with annual growth from 2012 through 2016 expected to average 4.5 per cent in current US dollars (down from previous 6.4 per cent) and 5.1 per cent annually in constant dollars (down from 7.4 per cent). This decline reflects a sharp reduction in the forecasted growth in spending on PCs and tablets that is being partially offset by marginal increases in forecast growth in spending on mobile phones and printers.
“The tablet market has seen greater price competition from android devices as well as smaller, low-priced devices in emerging markets. It is ultimately this shift toward relatively lower-priced tablets that lowers our average selling prices forecast for 2012 through 2016, which in turn is responsible for slowing device spending growth in general, and PC and tablet spending growth in particular,” says Gordon.
The research firm expects global spending on enterprise software to be about $296 billion in 2013. Growth in the segment will be driven by security, storage management and customer relationship management. However, from 2014 onwards, markets aligned to big data and other information management initiatives, such as enterprise content management, data integration tools, and data quality tools will witness increased investment.
According to Gartner, the global telecom services market continues to be the largest spender on IT. However, the growth in the industry will remain predominantly flat over the next several years as revenue from mobile data services will compensate for the decline in total spending for both the fixed and mobile voice services markets. Gartner estimates that the revenue share of mobile data services will increase from 22 per cent in 2012 to 33 percent by 2016.
