According to Gartner’s latest forecasts, global IT spending will increase by just 2.4 percent to $4.5 trillion in the year that has just started. In addition, the statisticians of the US market research company recorded a small minus of 0.2 percent to almost 4.39 trillion dollars in the first final calculation for 2022.
Just three months ago, they predicted growth of 5.1 percent in 2023 to $4.66 trillion and expected a small increase of 0.8 percent to a good $4.43 trillion in 2022. In the summer they were even more optimistic about the development of the IT industry.
Further investments in companies
With the correction of the growth forecast, the market researchers are once again paying tribute to the persistent inflation, which is further undermining the purchasing power of consumers and thus sending spending on end devices such as PCs, printers and the like plummeting. On the other hand, the unfavorable market environment should hardly have a negative impact on the investment behavior of companies.
“Consumers and businesses face very different economic realities,” Gartner analyst John-David Lovelock explains current market developments. While inflation more or less devastates consumer business and leads to layoffs at B2C providers, companies have remained invested in digital business initiatives despite a slowdown in the global economy. In one case or another, there could at most be a shift in priorities if the focus had been too much on one’s own growth strategies.
|
Forecast IT investments worldwide |
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|
segment |
2022 (in billion dollars) |
change (percent) |
2023 (in billion dollars) |
change (percent) |
|
data center systems |
212,376 |
12.0 |
213,853 |
0.7 |
|
software |
783,462 |
7.1 |
856,029 |
9.3 |
|
terminals |
722,181 |
-10.6 |
685,633 |
-5.1 |
|
IT services |
1244,746 |
3.0 |
1312,588 |
5.5 |
|
communication services |
1422,506 |
-2.4 |
1423,367 |
0.1 |
|
IT total |
4385,270 |
-0.2 |
4491,471 |
2.4 |
|
Source: Gartner 01/2023 |
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A look at the development of the IT sub-markets supports Lovelock’s statements: Because the areas of software and IT services, which have already generated reliable growth in the past, should also show respectable growth rates in 2023. According to the forecast, they will increase by 9.3 percent to $856 billion and 5.5 percent to $1.3 trillion. For the terminal equipment segment, on the other hand, the forecast assumes a slump of five percent to almost 686 billion dollars. According to the Gartner analyst’s observations, both consumers and companies are currently tending to use devices longer and postpone replacement purchases.
Gartner recently published the figures for PC sales in the final quarter of last year, which made the full extent of the disastrous development transparent. Lovelock’s bad news: Without a compelling reason to upgrade, such as the modernization of IT equipment to support remote work and education necessitated by the corona pandemic, the end device business will have to continue to suffer.
(fo)
