Worldwide IT spending will reach US$3.7 trillion (R44.5 trillion) in 2018, helped by a weakening US dollar, analyst firm Gartner said on Monday. That’s a 6.2% growth rate over 2017, the strongest improvement that Gartner has forecast since 2007.
“The declining US dollar has caused currency tailwinds, which are the main reason for this strong growth,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement.
Enterprise software spending is forecast to experience the highest growth in 2018, with an 11.1% increase.
“Barring unexpected disruption, the software industry is expected to continue capitalising on the evolution of digital business. Application software spending is expected to continue to rise through to 2019, and infrastructure software will also continue to grow, bolstered by modernisation initiatives,” said Lovelock.
Even with a strong end to 2017, worldwide spending on data centre systems is forecast to grow 3.7% in 2018, down from 6.3% in 2017, Gartner.
“The longer-term outlook continues to have challenges, particularly for the storage segment. The strength at the end of 2017 was primarily driven by the component shortage for memory components, and prices have increased at a greater rate than previously expected.”
Whereas previously, component shortages were expected to ease into 2018, the shortages are now expected to continue throughout the year with the supply not expected to ease until the end of the year, the company said.
Worldwide spending for devices — PCs, tablets and mobile phones — is forecast to grow in 2018, reaching $706bn, an increase of 6.6% from 2017.
“The device market continues to see dual dynamics. Some users are holding back from buying, and those that are buying are doing so, on average, at higher price points,” said Lovelock. “As a result, end-user spending will increase faster than units through to 2022. However, total end-user spending and unit shipments are expected to be lower compared with previous forecasts, as demand for ultramobile premium devices, ultramobile utility devices and basic phones is expected to be slow.” — (c) 2018 NewsCentral Media
