Gartner: Worldwide IT spending to hit $3.8 trillion in 2013
A rise of 4.1 percent over last year will be driven in part by companies buying "premium smartphones" for employees, the research firm says. Spending on tablets is also expected to rise.
Worldwide spending on IT is set to grow to new highs this year and next, according to a new study from research firm Gartner.
Total IT spending last year hit $3.6 trillion, Gartner said, representing a 2.1 percent gain over the prior year. In 2013, that spending will go up to $3.8 trillion, a rise of 4.1 percent. Things will get even better for the IT sector in 2014, when spending, according to the research firm, is expected to hit $3.9 trillion.
The big growth this year will come by way of device purchases, driven mainly by enterprises buying "premium smartphones" for employees. Spending on tablets is also expected to rise, as some of the cash formerly dedicated to computers transitions to slates.
Enterprise software and IT services will also see rises in spending this year, along with data center systems. Still, things are changing.
"The ratio of this mix is changing dramatically and there are clear winners and losers over the next three to five years, as we see more of a transition from PCs to mobile phones, from servers to storage, from licensed software to cloud, or the shift in voice and data connections from fixed to mobile," Gartner Research Vice President John Lovelock said today in a statement.