Tech Spending Still Strong Despite Economic Volatility and Cannibalization from Mobile Devices and the Cloud

According to the new International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book Query Tool just released, IT spending remained broadly strong throughout a difficult end to 2012 as business confidence waned in the shadow of the "fiscal cliff’," economic growth declined in much of Europe, and economies in Asia struggled to cope with reduced exports. In spite of these headwinds, worldwide IT spending recorded annual growth of 5.9 percent in 2012 in constant currency terms, keeping pace with the 5.8 percent growth recorded in 2011. Total IT spending on hardware, software and IT services reached $2 trillion, while ICT spending (including telecom services) increased by 4.8 percent to $3.6 trillion.

Last year was difficult for U.S.-based IT suppliers, however, which were adversely affected by the strength of the dollar throughout most of the year. In U.S.-dollar terms, worldwide IT spending grew by just 3.3 percent. This marked a significant slowdown from the U.S. dollar growth rate of 9.5 percent recorded in 2011. In 2013, IT spending is expected to increase by 5.5 percent as businesses and consumers continue to invest in mobile devices, storage, networks and software applications.

While overall IT spending remained stable, 2012 was another difficult year for the PC industry, which recorded a 2 percent decline in annual revenues. Revenue declines were also recorded in servers, PC monitors and feature phones as cannibalization from tablets and smartphones continued to reshape the IT industry landscape. For the first time, spending on smartphones in 2012 exceeded PCs, reaching almost $300 billion, while PC spending declined to $233 billion.

The global economy has been volatile through the past 12 months, and this sense of uncertainty persisted into the first quarter of 2013. IDC expects the U.S. economy to stabilize in the second half of the year, driving IT spending growth of 5.5 percent. 2013 will be another tough year for Europe, however, where tech spending is expected to increase by just 2 percent as the Eurozone and UK struggle to shrug off the lingering debt crisis. Excluding mobile devices, growth in Europe will be less than 1 percent. Japan has meanwhile lost most of the post-reconstruction momentum that drove IT spending to increase by 4 percent in 2012, and will record IT growth of 0 percent this year.

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