Gartner cuts IT spending forecasts for 2013

Forecast increases in global IT spending cut - but $3.7 trillion in sales of hardware, software and services still expected

Global growth in IT spending is slowing, according to analyst group Gartner, which forecasts that total spending in 2013 will amount to $3.7 trillion, an increase of just two per cent on the $3.6 trillion that it believes was spent worldwide on IT in 2012.

The new forecast cuts in half the level of growth that Gartner forecast just months ago. "Exchange rate movements, and a reduction in our 2013 forecast for devices, account for the bulk of the downward revision of the 2013 growth," said Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner.

"Regionally, 2013 constant-currency spending growth in most regions has been lowered. However, Western Europe's constant-currency growth has been inched up slightly as strategic IT initiatives in the region will continue despite a poor economic outlook," added Gordon.

Currency issues aside, a large part of the downgrade is due to a reduction in spending on devices after a number of years of tablet-computer-driven growth, which have mitigated a slowdown in sales of standard PCs.

Gartner has revised its forecasts for device sales from an expected increase of 7.9 per cent down to 2.8 per cent.

2012 spending

2012 growth

2013 spending

2013 growth

2014 spending

2014 growth

Devices

$676bn

10.9%

$695bn

2.8%

$740bn

6.5%

Data centre systems

$140bn

1.8%

$143bn

2.1%

$149bn

4.1%

Enterprise software

$285bn

4.7%

$304bn

6.4%

$324bn

6.6%

IT services

$906bn

2.0%

$926bn

2.2%

$968bn

4.6%

Telecom services

$1.641trn

0.7%

1.655trn

0.9%

$1.694trn

2.3%

OVERALL

3.648trn

2.5%

$3.723trn

2.0%

$3.875trn

4.1%

Gartner: Worldwide IT Spending Forecast

"The decline in PC sales, recorded in the first quarter of 2013, continued into the second quarter with little recovery expected during the second half of 2013. While new devices are set to hit the market in the second half of 2013, they will fail to compensate for the underlying weakness of the traditional PC market," claimed Gartner in a statement.

The outlook for tablet revenue for 2013 is for growth of 38.9 per cent, while mobile phone revenue is projected to increase 9.3 per cent this year.

Enterprise software spending will grow by 6.4 per cent in 2013, forecasts Gartner, while growth expectations for customer relationship management software, in particular, have been raised to reflect expanded coverage into e-commerce, social and mobile.

Expectations for digital content creation and operating systems have been reduced as software-as-a-service and changing device demands impact traditional models and markets.