Oz IT Spending To Hit $78bn – US Dollar A Drag On World Spend

ABS put the total spending on IT, telecoms and media – a significantly bigger field
– at $72.98 billion, about $5 billion less than Gartner claims for IT spending
alone.

Gartner says IT services is the largest spending category at $28.8 billion,
while software is the fasting growing area of spending, expected to grow 9.8
percent in 2015 to reach almost $9.4 billion.

The figures come from Gartner’s latest quarterly Worldwide IT Spending Forecast
which it describes as “a pulse-check on the health of the hardware,
software, IT services and telecom markets worldwide”.

It says Asia-Pacific IT spending will total US$743 billion in 2015, an increase
of 0.7 percent from 2014. However, in constant-currency terms, the market is
projected to grow 4.5 percent in 2015, Gartner says.

The growth in Australia’s IT spending compares with a 5.5 percent decline in
worldwide spending, which Garter estimates will total $3.5 trillion. Blame for
the decline is put on the rising US dollar value.

In constant-currency terms, however, the global market is projected to grow 2.5
percent. Gartner’s previous forecast in April, predicted global IT spending to
decline 1.3 percent in US dollars and grow 3.1 percent in constant currency.

Communications services will continue to be the largest global IT spending
segment in 2015, with spending at nearly $1.5 trillion, Gartner says.