Gartner trims outlook for global IT spend

Research firm Gartner has cut its outlook on worldwide IT spending growth for 2014 to 3.1 per cent from 3.6 per cent. According to the latest estimate, worldwide IT spending will touch $3.8 trillion this year, against $3.7 trillion in 2013.

The change in estimates has been largely attributed to the downward revision in spending for telecom services from 1.9 per cent to 1.2 per cent, said Richard Gordon, Managing Vice-President at Gartner.

Telecom spending accounts for more than 40 percent of total IT spending.

Factors involved “A number of factors are involved, including the faster-than-expected growth of wireless-only households, declining voice rates in China and a more frugal usage pattern among European customers. The latter coincides in Western Europe with the breakout of a fierce price competition among communications service providers to retain customers and attract new ones,” added Gordon.

The growth outlook for data centre systems has been cut from Gartner’s previous forecast of 2.9 per cent to 2.6 per cent.

Enterprise software Spending on devices (including PCs, ultramobiles, mobiles and tablets) is expected to grow 4.3 per cent. Enterprise software spending will increase 6.8 per cent during the forecast period, Gartner said.

“Investment is coming from exploiting analytics to make B2C processes more efficient and improve customer marketing efforts,” said Gordon.

adith.charlie@thehindu.co.in