IT spending to soar a whopping 2.7 per cent, says ball-rubber Gartner

Clairvoyant Gartner has once again dusted off the crystal ball in its quarterly global IT spend divination ritual to predict a 2.7 per cent year-on-year increase in 2017.

Companies are due to splash $3.5tr (£2.87tr) on IT this year, globally, although that is down from its previous projection of three per cent.

Worldwide devices spending on PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are projected to remain flat in 2017 at $589bn (£484bn). That is still a big improvement on 2016, when spend fell 8.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the IT services market is forecasted to grow 4.2 per cent in 2017 to $938bn (£770bn). Enterprise software spend is expected to increase the most at 6.8 per cent to $380bn (£312bn).

In a somewhat cryptic statement, John-David Lovelock, chief mage research vice president at Gartner, explained the situation thus:

The range of spending growth from the high to low is much larger in 2017 than in past years. Normally, the economic environment causes some level of division, however, in 2017 this is compounded by the increased levels of uncertainty.

The result of that uncertainty is a division between individuals and corporations that will spend more – due to opportunities arising – and those that will retract or pause IT spending.

Got that?

Nevertheless, the current stats are significantly more upbeat than in 2016. In October, the firm predicted spend of $3.387tr, (£2.784tr) a decline of 0.3 per cent.

However, it had previously expected growth of 0.5 per cent in 2016 prior to Brexit.

Perhaps it should start consulting the I Ching instead. ®