Software and smartphones to see IT spending soar

IDC unveils optimistic outlook for second half of 2014

Strong sales of smartphones and software will help global IT spending grow by 4.5 per cent this year, according to IDC.

The analyst said growing business confidence in mature markets and the PC refresh cycle inspired by the end of Windows XP will also contribute to the boom.

By the end of the year, IT spending is forecast to rise by 4.5 per cent at constant currency or 4.1 per cent in US dollars. A large portion of this growth is set to come from smartphones alone – without which, IT spending would rise just 3.1 per cent in constant currency.

Top vendors across the industry have placed their bets on third-platform IT – mobile, social, cloud and big data – for the next stage of their growth, something IDC's figures suggest is a wise move.

"Aside from smartphones, the strongest growth will come from software, including rapidly expanding markets such as data analytics, data management, and collaborative applications including enterprise social networks," it said.

"The third-platform pillars of big data, social, mobile and cloud will continue to drive virtually all the growth in IT spending, while spending on second-platform technologies will remain effectively flat."

Refreshing news for PC market

The end of support for Windows XP in April has had a better-than-expected impact on the commercial PC market, IDC said.

PC spending will be up 3.5 per cent by the end of the year – the fastest pace since the post-financial-crisis rebound in 2010.

But it is not just the "XP effect" which has prompted the boom, said IDC's vice president for global technology Stephen Minton.

"The end of support for Windows XP is obviously part of the story, but there has also been a transition of some spending from tablets to PCs as consumers and businesses have allocated disposable income and IT budget to replacing older notebooks and desktops rather than upgrading their relatively new tablets," he said.

"The tablet market is also more sensitive to economic wild cards and price competition, now that penetration rates have increased.

"There's still plenty of growth ahead for tablets, however, and it would be premature to say that improvements in the consumer PC market represent anything like a reversal of the long-term shift to tablets and hybrids over the long term."