Gartner Predicts Worldwide IT Spending Forecast to Grow 2.7 Percent in 2017

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.7 percent increase from 2016, according to Gartner, the Stamford, CT-based market researcher. However, this growth rate is down from earlier projections of 3 percent.

“2017 was poised to be a rebound year in IT spending,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Some major trends have converged, including cloud, blockchain, digital business and artificial intelligence. Normally, this would have pushed IT spending much higher than 2.7 percent growth. However, some of the political uncertainty in global markets has fostered a wait-and-see approach causing many enterprises to forestall IT investments.”

Worldwide devices spending (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) is projected to remain flat in 2017 at $589 billion. A replacement cycle in the PC market and strong pricing and functionality of premium ultramobiles is expected to help drive growth in 2018.

The worldwide IT services market, meanwhile, is forecast to grow 4.2 percent in 2017. Buyer investments in digital business, intelligent automation, and services optimization and innovation continue to drive growth in the market, but buyer caution, fueled by broad economic challenges, remains a counter-balance to faster growth.

Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies on analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services.

Channel Impact^®
The numbers are obviously tracking in a positive direction, but the data suggests that political considerations are factoring into customer purchasing decisions, or at least the timing for those purchases.