Large enterprise expenditures on mobile devices, PC, software will drive global technology purchases in excess of US$3.7 trillion this year, according to a report released by research firm Gartner Inc.
Worldwide device spending which includes PC, tables, mobile phones and printers in forecast to reach $666 billion in 2013, up 6.3 per cent from 2013, which is a significant reduction for 2013 compared to Gartner’s previous forecast of $706 billion in worldwide devices, according to the latest Worldwide IT Spending Forecast by the technology research company.
“Uncertainties surrounding prospects for an upturn in global economic growth are major retardants to IT growth,” said Richard Gordon, managing president of Gartner. “This uncertainty has caused the pessimistic business and consumer sentiments throughout the world.”
“However, much of this uncertainty is nearing resolution, and as it does, we look for accelerated growth in 2013 compared to 2012,” he said.
Enterprise spending on software will amount to about $296 billion in 2013, an increase of 6.4 per cent over figure from 2012. The boost will be powered by security, customer relationship management and storage management demands, the report said.
By 2014, according to Gartner, investments will also begin to go up in areas such as big data, enterprise content management, data integration and information management.
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However, Gartner said budget-priced tablets will bring down device expenditures through the next three to four years.
“The tablet marker has seen greater price competition from Android devices as well as small, low-priced devices in emerging markets,” said Gordon. “It is ultimately this shift towards relatively lower-priced tablets that lowers our average selling price forecast from 2012 through 2016, which in turn is responsible for slowing device spending grown in general and PC and tablet spending in particular.”
