IT spending in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is forecast to reach $767 billion in 2014, a 5.5 per cent increase from 2013, but it is the opportunities of a digital world that have IT leaders excited, according to a study by Gartner Inc.
This results in every budget being an IT budget, every company a technology company and every business a digital leader and every person is becoming a technology company. This results in the beginning of an era: the Digital Industrial Economy.
“The Digital Industrial Economy will be built on the foundations of the Nexus of Forces (which includes a confluence and integration of cloud, social collaboration, mobile and information) and the Internet of Everything by combining the physical world and the virtual,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice-President at Gartner and global head of Research.
“Digitalisation exposes every part of your business and its operations to these forces. It is how you reach customers and constituents; how you run your physical plant; and how you generate revenue or deliver services. Enterprises doing this today are setting themselves apart and will collectively lead the new Digital Industrial Economy,” Sondergaard said.
IT products, services
Spending on IT products and services in the APAC region is forecast to grow 5.5 per cent in 2014 to reach $767 billion from $727 billion this year, and reach $933 billion in 2017.
In China, spending is forecast to grow 6.7 per cent in 2013 and accelerate to 8.7 per cent growth in 2014.
According to Gartner, China’s powerful growing middle class is having a huge impact on the rest of the economy and IT, moving consumer and enterprise markets.
Automation of health, banking, government, communications and manufacturing are major IT drivers. These vertical industries will offer the greatest opportunities for technology vendors in the next five years.
In Australia, IT spending is forecast to reach almost A$77.2 billion in 2014, up 2.3 per cent from $75.5 billion in 2013.
The largest category of spending is IT services, forecast to reach $29.7 billion in 2014, followed by telecommunications services at $26.9 billion.
Spending on mobile devices is forecast to fall from more than $4 billion this year to $3.7 billion in 2014.
Software still represents the fastest growing category of IT spending in Australia, forecast to grow 7.8 per cent from almost $7.1 billion in 2013 to more than $7.6 billion in 2014.