Worldwide IT spending is expected to increase by 4.5% in 2017 in constant currency terms, a significant improvement on last year’s growth of 2.5%, according to IDC.
The latest addition of the research firm's Worldwide Black Book forecasts that total IT spending this year will reach $2.1 trillion and is forecast to increase by another 4% in 2018 as positive momentum continues into next year.
Including telecom services, which will increase by just over 2% in constant currency terms this year, the overall ICT market will reach $3.5 trillion in 2017.
Growth is being driven by stronger upgrade cycles for infrastructure and mobile devices.
APeJ will post the strongest regional growth in IT spending this year, IDC predicts, with the company projecting an 8% increase in constant currency terms.
China and India are both expected to post overall IT spending growth of 10% in constant currency terms this year, although China is likely to see a moderating pace of growth in the next few years as the economy begins to slow.
The strongest growth this year will come from infrastructure hardware, enterprise software, and mobile devices. With cloud service providers expected to accelerate their datacenter investments in order to keep pace with growing demand for cloud services, total server spending will increase by 4% this year and 5% in 2018.
Smartphone sales will improve compared to 2016
Last year saw a significant slowdown in the smartphone market, as increasing maturity and price competition affected many markets. Stronger growth is expected in the second half of 2017, as premium vendors launch significant new products while smartphone penetration and value continues to grow steadily in key emerging markets including China.
Overall smartphone spending will increase by 7% this year to $439 billion, a big improvement on last year's 1% growth.
"Cloud and mobile are still the big drivers for IT spending, despite the attention devoted to new technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics," IDC VP for customer insights and analysis Stephen Minton said.
"New technologies will drive a larger share of market growth in the next 5-10 years, but the short term will also see a resurgence of growth in markets tied to 3rd Platform opportunities, including cloud services, mobility and big data."
First published in Networks Asia