Global IT spending is set to grow by 4.1% to reach $3.8 trillion Gartner reports, as fragile business and consumer sentiment persists throughout the world.
"The global steady growth rates are a calm ocean that hides turbulent currents beneath," the analyst says. "The Nexus of Forces-— social, mobile, cloud and information-— are reshaping spending patterns across all of the IT sectors Gartner forecasts. Consumers and enterprises will continue to purchase a mix of IT products and services; nothing is going away completely. However, the ratio of this mix is changing dramatically and there are clear winners and losers over the next 3 to 5 years, as we see 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."
Devices (PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers) spending should reach $718 billion in 2013, with a short-term boost on premium mobile phones driving 7.9% growth despite flat PC spending and declines in printers.
On the other hand Gartner reduces previous data centre forecasts by -0.7%-- the analyst says data centre spending will grow by 3.7%, with cuts on external storage and enterprise spending in the ecomically troubled EMEA region.
The global enterprise software spending forecast remains unchanged from previous Gartner reports ($297bn with 6.4% growth), since stronger growth expectations for database management systems (DBMS), data integration tools and supply chain management should compensate for lower IT operations management and OS software expectations.
Also relatively unchanged is the IT services outlook-- continued buyer hesitation is bringing about hypercompetition and cost pressure in mature IT outsourcing (ITO) segments and reallocation of budgets away from new consultation and implementation projects.
Last but not least, global telecom services are set to remain the largest IT spending market, with roughly flat growth over the next several yaers through strong mobile data service growth counterbalancing declines in voice services spending.
