Worldwide IT spending to reach $3.7 tn in 2013: Gartner

Uncertainty among customers regarding economic growth is nearing resolution says the IT research firm

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2013, a 4.2 per cent increase from 2012 spending of $3.6 trillion, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. The 2013 outlook for IT spending growth in US dollars has been revised upward from 3.8 per cent in the 3Q12 forecast.

According to Gartner analysts, much of this spending increase is the result from projected gains in the value of foreign currencies versus the dollar. When measured in constant dollars, 2013 spending growth is forecast to be 3.9 per cent.

"Uncertainties surrounding prospects for an upturn in global economic growth are the major retardants to IT growth," said Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner. "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."

Worldwide enterprise software spending is forecast to total $296 billion in 2013, a 6.4 per cent increase from 2012. This segment will be driven by key markets such as security, storage management and customer relationship management; however, beginning in 2014, markets aligned to big data and other information management initiatives, such as enterprise content management, data integration tools, and data quality tools will begin to see increased levels of investment.

Worldwide devices spending which includes PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers, is forecast to reach $666 billion in 2013, up 6.3 per cent from 2012. However, this is a significant reduction in the outlook for 2013 compared with Gartner's previous forecast of $706 billion in worldwide devices and 7.9 per cent growth. The long-term forecast for worldwide spending on devices has been reduced as well, with growth from 2012 through 2016 now expected to average 4.5 per cent annually in current US dollars (down from 6.4%) and 5.1 per cent annually in constant dollars (down from 7.4%).

The global telecom services market continues to be the largest IT spending market. Gartner analysts predict that growth will be predominately flat over the next several years as revenue from mobile data services compensates for the declines in total spending for both the fixed and mobile voice services markets. By 2016, Gartner forecasts that mobile data will represent 33 per cent of the total telecom services market, up from 22 per cent in 2012. Nike Jordan


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