Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $US3.8 trillion in 2013, a 4.1 per cent increase from 2012’s spending of $US3.6 trillion, according to the latest forecast by research firm, Gartner.
The study, Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast , also showed that IT spending is forecast to reach $US740 billion in 2013 in Asia-Pacific, an 8.2 per cent increase over 2012 spending of $US684 billion and double the expected global growth rate.
"Although the United States did avoid the fiscal cliff, the subsequent sequestration, compounded by the rise of Cyprus' debt burden, seems to have netted out any benefit, and the fragile business and consumer sentiment throughout much of the world continues," Gartner managing vice-president, Richard Gordon, said.
"However, the new shocks are expected to be short-lived, and while they may cause some pauses in discretionary spending along the way, strategic IT initiatives will continue.”
The study also indicated that despite continuing economic challenges, some categories like devices and software continue to show good growth.
Worldwide devices spending (which includes PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers) is forecast to reach $US718 billion in 2013, up 7.9 per cent from 2012.
Gordon said regardless of flat spending on PCs and a modest decline in spending on printers, a short-term boost to spending on premium mobile phones has driven an upward revision in the devices sector growth for 2013 from Gartner's previous forecast of 6.3 per cent.
Gartner research vice-president, John Lovelock, said consumers and enterprises will continue to purchase a mix of IT products and services, but the ratio of the mix is changing dramatically to highlight clear winners and losers over the next three to five years.
According to Lovelock, there will be more of a transition from PCs to mobile phones, from servers to storage, from licensed software to Cloud, or the shift in voice and data connections from fixed to mobile.
"The global steady growth rates are a calm ocean that hides turbulent currents beneath. The Nexus of Forces — social, mobile, Cloud and information — are reshaping spending patterns across all of the IT sectors that Gartner forecasts,” he said.
Other findings from the study include:
- The outlook for datacentre systems spending is forecast to grow 3.7 per cent in 2013, down 0.7 per cent from Gartner's previous forecast.
- Worldwide enterprise software spending is forecast to total $US297 billion in 2013, a 6.4 per cent increase from 2012. The growth for this segment remains unchanged from Gartner's previous forecast.
- Gartner claimed that while the outlook for IT services remains relatively unchanged since last quarter, continued hesitation among buyers is fostering hyper-competition and cost pressure in mature IT outsourcing (ITO) segments and reallocation of budget away from new projects in consulting and implementation.
- The global telecom services market continues to be the largest IT spending market. Gartner predicted that it will remain roughly flat over the new several years, with declining spending on voice services counterbalanced by strong growth in spending on mobile data services.
