Gartner: Global IT spending to hit $3.8 trillion in 2013

Market watcher Gartner predicts that worldwide IT spending will top $3.8 trillion this year, despite the economic turmoil blighting many countries within EMEA.

Despite the ongoing collapse of the PC market, the amount spent on devices including computers, mobile phones and printers is expected to be nearly 8 per cent higher than in 2012 and hit $718 billion by the end of the year.

The analyst had previously forecast growth of around 6.3 per cent for the devices market, but claimed the lacklustre performance of the PC and printers market has been offset by the soar in demand for smartphones.

Worldwide spending on enterprise software is also expected to be up on last year, to the tune of 6.4 per cent, and top $297 billion in 2013. This is in line with Gartner's previous forecast for this part of the IT market.

The only blot on the landscape seems to be datacentre systems spending, where the growth forecast is nearly one per cent lower than Gartner previously predicted at 3.7 per cent.

"This reduction is largely due to cuts to the near-term forecast for spending on external storage and the enterprise in the economically troubled EMEA region," said Gartner in a statement.

Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner, said IT spending looks set to weather the various economic storms happening across the globe in 2013.

"Although the United States did avoid the fiscal cliff, the subsequent sequestration, compounded by the rise of Cyprus' debt burden, seems to have netted out any benefit, and the fragile business and consumer sentiment throughout much of the world continues," said Gordon.

"However, the new shocks are expected to be short-lived, and while they may cause some pauses in discretionary spending along the way, strategic IT initiatives will continue."