Personal Devices and Enterprise Software Predicted to Outpace Other IT Spending
January 09, 2013
By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor
Personal devices and enterprise software should be the big winners in 2013, but the overall global growth of IT in 2013 will be middling at best.
Both Gartner (News - Alert) and Forrester have released their predictions for IT spending in 2013, and Gartner predicts spending to increase 3.9 percent compared to 2012 after the effects of exchange rates have been excluded, totaling $3.7 trillion. Forrester (News - Alert) predicts a 3.3-percent increase in world IT spending to $1.8 trillion after exchange rate shifts. Forrester does not include telecom products and services in its forecasts.
The areas of strong growth in 2013 should come from devices such as PCs, tablets and smartphones, according to Gartner. It predicts that worldwide spending on such products will climb 6.6 percent this year to reach $666 billion.
Previously, Gartner predicted a growth of 7.9 percent this year, but the emergence of low-cost tablets has reduced expected expenditure.
“The tablet market has seen greater price competition from Android (News - Alert) devices as well as smaller, low-priced devices in emerging markets,” said Richard Gordon, Gartner managing VP, as reported by InformationWeek. “It is ultimately this shift to relatively lower-priced tablets that lowers our average selling prices forecast.”
Apple (News - Alert) will do well, of course, outpacing other device makers. Forrester has predicted that enterprise Mac sales will total $7 billion in 2013 while enterprise iPad sales will hit $11 billion.
Enterprise software also should have a fair year. The outlook is that companies will spend on security, storage management and CRM software, showing growth of 6.4 percent according to Gartner. Big data and enterprise content management software won’t kick in until 2014, it is predicted.
Telecom services will not have as good a year. It will grow the least among all the categories, it is predicted, growing only 2.4 percent according to Gartner.
This does not necessarily mean that telecom spending will be flat, however. Products such as the Emptoris Rivermine Telecom Expense Management solution help companies reduce telecom costs in addition to giving firms visibility and managing mobility and networks. So savings could help make the category appear flat.
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will lead IT spending globally, finds Forrester. Tech spending in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia is expected to increase 8.9 percent this year.
U.S. IT spending should not be far behind, with 7.5-percent growth, according to Forrester. Latin America should increase spending 6.4 percent, and Asia Pacific 4 percent. Western and Central Europe will be where spending lags; it is predicted that IT spending will grow a paltry 0.8 percent due to debt-laden countries such as Greece and Spain.
Forrester says software related to mobility, analytics and collaboration will do well in the U.S. More traditional enterprise software such as ERP and databases will see less growth.
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Edited by Rachel Ramsey