Gartner Revises Global IT Spending Predictions

Gartner has revised its predictions for global IT spending in 2014.

Citing higher levels of competition and the subsequent pressure for vendors to slash prices, the research firm has lowered its predictions for the industry.

Rather than the 3.2 per cent growth rate it previously forecasted, Gartner thinks spending will instead rise by 2.1 per cent, to £3.7 trillion (£2.2 trillion).

However, Gartner doesn't think that the slowed growth should be a cause for concern, since there could be a number of hidden factors in play.

"In the context of an improving global economic situation, to have IT spending be anemic, in the low single digits, might be a surprise on the face of it," said Richard Gordon, Gartner's managing vice president.

"[Customers are] getting better deals for their money and spending their money carefully."

Data centre systems will be the biggest casualties of this apparent change in customer attitudes and rise in competition, with spending set to increase by just 0.4 per cent to $140 billion (£82 billion). Following the same trend, spending on devices will apparently rise by 1.2 per cent to $685 billion (£402 billion).

Interestingly though, Gartner reckons that IT services revenue will jump by 3.8 per cent to $967 billion (£567 billion), with the rise fuelled by the appeal of outsourcing IT.

Similarly, enterprise software revenue will increase by 6.9 per cent to $321 billion (£188 billion), according to Gartner's numbers.