Worldwide IT spending will grow by 2,7% in 2017 to reach US$3,5 trillion (a staggering R47,5 trillion in soft-currency terms), according to a new forecast from Gartner.

The analyst firm said 2017 is poised to be a “rebound year” in IT spending, although its forecast is down from an earlier projection of 3%.

“Some major trends have converged, including cloud, blockchain, digital business and artificial intelligence. Normally, this would have pushed IT spending much higher than 2,7% growth,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice-president at Gartner in a statement. “However, some of the political uncertainty in global markets has fostered a wait-and-see approach causing many enterprises to forestall IT investments.”

Worldwide device spending (PCs, tablets, ultra-mobiles and mobile phones) is projected to remain flat in 2017 at $589bn. However, a replacement cycle in the PC market and strong pricing and functionality of premium ultra-mobiles will help drive growth in 2018, Gartner predicted.

Emerging markets will drive the replacement cycle for mobile phones as smartphones in these markets are used as a main computing device and replaced more regularly than in mature markets, it added.

The worldwide IT services market, meanwhile, is forecast to grow at a more robust pace of 4,2% in 2017. “Buyer investments in digital business, intelligent automation and services optimisation and innovation continue to drive growth in the market, but buyer caution, fuelled by broad economic challenges, remains a counterbalance to faster growth.”

Aggressive expansion of cloud computing platforms by companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon will push the global server market to grow at 5,6% in 2017. This was revised up from Gartner’s previous forecast and is sufficient growth to overcome an expected 3% decline in external controller-based storage and allow the data centre systems segment to grow by 2,6% in 2017. — © 2017 NewsCentral Media