According to IDC revenues for the European Internet of Things (IoT) market are to reach $171 billion in 2019, a 19.8% increase, before surpassing $241bn in 2022 through double-digit growth during the 2017-2022 period.

W. Europe accounts for the lion's share of the market, since the apetite for IoT solutions remains evident throughout the region. German spending is set to reach $35bn, followed by France and the UK spending $25bn, and Italy with $19bn. Meanwhile CEE accounts for 7% of 2019 European IoT revenues.

"We’re still just scratching the surface of how powerful IoT solutions can be when combined with the massive scale of IoT endpoints, world-class connectivity and advanced technology," the analyst says. "That said, organisations across industries are gradually experiencing that driving business outcomes with IoT requires not only new technologies and expertise in areas like edge infrastructure, wired and wireless networking, security, and edge-to-cloud architectures, but also viable use cases that deliver short-term results and help drive a strategic IoT innovation road map."

According to Gartner, global IT spending is to reach $3.76 trillion in 2019, a 3.2% increase despite uncertainty brought about by recession rumours, Brexit, trade wars and tariffs.

"[T]here are a lot of dynamic changes happening in regards to which segments will be driving growth in the future," the analyst continues. "Spending is moving from saturated segments such as mobile phones, PCs and on-premises datacentre infrastructure to cloud services and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. IoT devices, in particular, are starting to pick up the slack from devices. Where the devices segment is saturated, IoT is not."

The traditional PC market (desktop, notebooks and workstations) comes in negative in Q4 2018, IDC reports-- shipments are down by -5.8% Y-o-Y to reach 19.6 million units, with declines in both commercial and consumer segments.

The decline in commercial space is arguably slight, being at -1.1% Y-o-Y, thanks to ongoing device renewals and increasing Windows 10 adoption. On the other hand consumer decline reaches -10.6%, and affects both desktops and notebooks. The analyst points out a number of reasons behind such results, including CPU shortages leading to vendors unable to meet seasonal demand, as well as disruptive macroeconomic and political scenarios taking place in multiple larger economies, including Brexit and the Yellow Vest movement.

W. European Q4 2018 shipments are down by -4.7% Y-o-Y, with slight commercial growth (1.3% Y-o-Y) insufficient to offset heavy consumer decline (-11.5% Y-o-Y). Enterprise are continuing to buy notebooks, particularly ultrabooks, bringing about some measure of stable performance. On the other hand, the consumer segment shows weak performance in both categories, with the DACH region, France and UKI posting double-digit declines.

According to IDC, American organisations are set to spend 1.75x more than European organisations on information technologies from 2018 through 2022-- and China is also about to outpace Europe in key areas, investing 47% more in "innovation accelerators."

"That Europe trails the US in its use of digital technology is often accepted as a given. What's worrisome is the size and potential widening of the gap between the two," the analyst says. "And, of course, there are companies out there that are able to do more with less or that have not yet pushed their IT systems to their full potential. And there is a great deal that can be done by restructuring the organisation and resetting business goals. But so much innovation today depends on use of cutting-edge technologies, that new spending will almost always be needed to remain competitive."