Forrester predicts light at the end of the tunnel

Industry will return to healthy growth next year, says analyst

This year is set to act as a stepping stone for growth in the global technology market, according to research firm Forrester, which claims that 2014 will see a marked increase in spending.

The analyst's Global Tech Market Forecast predicts that economic instability will soon be a thing of the past, and says technology companies should look forward to a spending increase of 6.7 per cent globally next year.

Mobility, cloud computing and smart computing are cited as trends to watch this year by Forrester, which claims that once the economic squeeze is over, pent-up demand for new technologies will surface and drive the growth in technology spending.

Despite the optimistic forecast, the analyst concedes that Europe will fare the worst this year as it continues to recover from the recession. Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa will enjoy collective growth of nine per cent in 2013, according to Forrester, which predicted growth of 7.5 per cent for the US over the same period.

The "lousy" 2012 experienced by hardware firms is set to continue, with weakness persisting in 2013. The analyst forecasts purchases of both servers and storage slowing to three per cent.

Global corporate spending on Wintel PCs and tablets was down four per cent in 2012, and will remain flat in 2013, claimed Forrester, despite predictions that Windows 8 devices will lead to an eight per cent rise in Wintel products.