Chin up, tech world. Gartner says it'll be OK

Worldwide spend to reach $3.6 TREEELLION in 2014

The good news for anyone selling tech to pay the bills is that market demand is bouncing back, although retailers in particular will need to run faster to stand still as customers opt for cheaper devices.

In its latest Worldwide Spending Forecast, crystal ball gazers at Gartner reckon some $3.77 trillion will be splashed by consumers and businesses on IT this year, up 3.2 per cent on last year.

"Globally businesses are shaking off their malaise and returning to spending on IT to support the growth of their business," said Richard Gordon, managing veep at Gartner.

PC, ultra mobiles, mobile phones and slablets are estimated to grow 4.4 per cent, but the boxcounter reckons demand for highly priced premium phones is slowing, with punters buying mid-range device and low-end Android basic phones.

The traditional computer base in "contracting" to "fewer, albeit more engaged, users" but with little in the way of product differentiation, pricing is set to remain as the primary driver.

"Consumers may be purchasing many new devices in 2014; however, there is greater [movement] toward lower cost and more basic devices than we have seen in prior years," said Gordon.

The data centre systems space is touted to hit $143bn, up 2.3 per cent on 2013 with the enterprise network equipment driven by the mobility and cloud, Gartner said.

The usual suspects of cloud, mobility, social and analytics will also be behind a predicted 6.9 per cent leap in enterprise software sales to $320bn, boosting demand for CRM and database management systems.

Buyers of IT services are shifting their spend from consultation (planning projects) to implementation (actually signing off projects), and Gartner expects this space to be worth $964bn, up 4.6 per cent.

The telecom services market is expected to report the lowest growth of all the sectors, up 1.3 per cent to $1.655 trillion.

"Fixed voice services continue to decline "from substitution effects occurring a bit faster than previously anticipated affecting the balance of wireless-only households in important markets," Gartner said. ®