Gartner Predicts 5.6 Percent Rise in IT Spending This Year Driven by Tablets

A new forecast from Gartner (News - Alert) Research predicts worldwide IT spending will increase by 5.6 percent this year, led by growth in tablet computers like Apple's iPad. Worldwide IT spending will reach $3.6 trillion in 2011, an increase from $3.4 trillion last year.

The company had previously forecasted a growth of 5.1 percent and has since revised the figure to 5.6 percent.

Gartner says the Middle East share of IT spending is around two percent, and that a stable outlook is predicted despite political unrest in the region. The company adds that the impact of the disaster in Japan and how it will affect global IT markets is not yet fully understood.

"While the political unrest affecting many countries in the region may well dent IT spending levels, any impact would be insignificant at the global level," said Richard Gordon, vice president of Gartner Research. "We had largely completed our forecast by the time the recent natural disasters in Japan occurred, and we are still evaluating their likely impact on our forecast."

Gordon said the company is looking at two potential effects on IT markets resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. They will examine disruptions in the global electronics supply chain as well as the impact on IT demand.

Gartner added tablet computers to its computing hardware spending estimates this quarter. That addition has raised the overall computing hardware growth outlook from 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent for the year. The company has predicted worldwide spending on tablets will reach $29.4 billion this year, up from $9.6 billion in 2010 when Apple (News - Alert) was the only significant company in the market. Global spending on tablets is expected to rise at an annual average rate of 52 percent through 2015.

"Absent the addition of media tablets, the forecast would have slightly declined in constant-dollar terms; however, with their addition, there's virtually no change in underlying forecast growth at the level of overall IT," said Gordon. "The addition of media tablets, reinforced by an expected additional decline in the value of the dollar, accounts for the increase in top-line growth."

Worldwide telecom spending is also expected to rise by 4.9 percent in 2011 to $2.11 trillion, while IT services spending is projected to grow 5 percent to $824 billion. Enterprise software spending is also expected to grow $7.6 billion to reach $255 billion.