IT spending in the Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach $743 billion in 2013, a 7.9 per cent rise over 2012. In 2012, IT spending in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) is on pace to grow at 7.6 per cent, according to study by research and advisory firm Gartner.
All the five major segments of IT spending are expected to grow in 2013 across APAC. The devices segment (including personal computers, tablets, mobile phones and printers) in APAC is projected to total $229.7 billion, a 12.3 per cent rise from 2012 spending.
Data centre systems spending is forecast to reach $28.6 billion in 2013, a 9.5 per cent rise from 2012; software spending will total $33.9 billion, up 11.9 per cent; IT services spending will reach $91.5 billion, up 7.5 per cent; and telecom services is projected to total $359.4 billion, a 4.8 per cent increase from 2012, it said.
“As global markets improve in 2013 and resume growth, the Asia-Pacific remains one of the bright spots of the global IT market, allowing organisations in this region to accelerate competitiveness,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice-president and global head of research at Gartner.
“Organisations in the Asia-Pacific will be able to innovate and compete using what we call the nexus of forces, or the intersection of cloud, mobile, social and information. New business models will emerge in this region,” he added.
In Australia, IT spending is forecast to grow 3.2 per cent in 2013 to reach A$75.5 billion ($75.4 billion) and that in New Zealand is forecast to grow 2 per cent in 2013 to reach NZ$11.1 billion ($8.6 billion). These growth rates are slightly lower than the worldwide forecast growth of 3.8 per cent.
Gartner predicts that by 2014, IT hiring in the major Western markets will come predominantly from Asian-headquartered companies that enjoy double-digit growth.
“An increasing number of successful Asian companies — particularly from China and India — enjoy double-digit growth rates and will substantially grow their geographic footprints, making significant investments in major Western markets through 2015. Consequently, these organisations will be responsible for major hiring of IT professionals to support their growth at a time when Western companies will still be coping with the impact of the economic crisis,” Sondergaard said.
By 2015, 4.4 million IT jobs will be created globally to support big data. Of these, 9.6 lakh will be in the Asia-Pacific region. Every big data-related role in the Asia-Pacific will create employment for three people outside of IT, which makes a total of 4 million jobs in the Asia-Pacific. However, only one-third of the IT roles will be filled due to lack of skills in big data. Governments and organisations will need to focus on education and skills development to remain competitive.