Worldwide spending on technology products and services will be flat for the full 2016 year, market research firm Gartner has predicted in the wake of the Brexit situation. However Australia appears to be doing a little better, with Gartner tipping total technology spending to reach A$83.3 billion in 2016, up 2.8 percent over 2015.
The news is best for Aussie IT services and software vendors, with services continuing to be biggest spending category, while software is the fastest growing.
But Garter predicts Australian spending on “devices” – such as mobile phones, tablets, PCs and printers – will continue to fall for the rest of the year
On the global scene, Gartner says worldwide spending should total about US$3.41 trillion, up slightly from last quarter’s forecast of 0.5 percent growth, with most of this due to currency fluctuations.
The current Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast had – incorrectly as it happened – assumed that the UK would not exit the European Union.
“With the UK’s exit, there will likely be an erosion in business confidence and price increases which will impact UK, western Europe and worldwide IT spending,” said Gartner research VP John-David Lovelock.
Gartner’s does predict continued growth in some categories – eg, datacentres up 2pc; software up 5.8pc; and services up 3.7pc.
But device sales are predicted to drop 5.3pc to US$627.2 billion and communications services will be down 1.4pc at $1380 billion – leaving total spending at $3.412 billion, just below the 2015 total of $3.41 billion.
The researcher says it will present more detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry in a complimentary webinar on July 12, niftily titled IT Spending Forecast, 2Q16 Update: New Options Are Disrupting Established Markets.
