Gartner hoists 2013 IT growth forecasts

Although analyst warns that spending on PCs and tablets will be much lower than it previously estimated

Gartner has handed the channel a new year's boost by revising upwards its global IT spending forecast for 2013.

The market watcher said much of the uncertainty that plagued the market in 2012 is "nearing resolution" as it predicted that global spending on hardware, software, IT services and telecoms would jump 4.2 per cent to $3.7tn (£2.3tn) this year.

This dwarfs the muted 1.2 per cent growth seen last year.

It also trumps the 3.8 per cent 2013 growth forecast Gartner issued in the third quarter of last year - although much of the 0.4 per cent increase was put down to foreign currency fluctuations.

But it was not all good news for the channel as the analyst revised downwards its forecast for growth of spending on devices, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers.

Gartner now expects device sales to rise 6.3 per cent to $666bn in 2013, down from its previous forecast of 7.9 per cent, and also lowered its long-term growth forecast (covering 2012 to 2016) from 6.4 per cent to 4.5 per cent.

"It is ultimately this shift towards relatively lower-priced tablets that lowers our average selling prices forecast for 2012 through 2016, which in turn is responsible for slowing device spending growth in general, and PC and tablet spending growth in particular," said Richard Gordon, managing vice president of Gartner.

However, this is still significantly up on the 2.9 per cent growth in device spending seen last year.

Meanwhile, enterprise software spending is set to rise 6.4 per cent to $296bn in 2013, driven by spending on security, storage management and CRM.

Spending on global telecoms - by far the largest sub-sector - will grow by 2.4 per cent in 2013 to $1.7tn, while IT services spend will swell 5.2 per cent to $927bn, Gartner said.

"Uncertainties surrounding prospects for an upturn in global economic growth are the major retardants to IT growth," Gordon said. "This uncertainty has caused the pessimistic business and consumer sentiment throughout the world. However, much of this uncertainty is nearing resolution, and as it does, we look for accelerated spending growth in 2013 compared to 2012."