Worldwide IT Spending In 2016 Expected To Be Flat: Gartner

(RTTNews) - Worldwide IT spending is forecast to be flat in 2016, totaling $3.41 trillion, according to analyst and research firm Gartner Inc. The latest view is higher than last quarter's forecast of negative 0.5 percent growth, mainly due to currency fluctuations.

John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, said, "The current Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast assumes that the U.K. would not exit the European Union. With the U.K.'s exit, there will likely be an erosion in business confidence and price increases which will impact U.K., Western Europe and worldwide IT spending."

It is expected that the "leave" vote in UK will quickly affect IT spending in the U.K. and in Europe while other changes will take longer. Staff may be the largest immediate issue. The long-term uncertainty in work status will make the U.K. less attractive to new foreign workers.

For the year, data center systems' spending is projected to reach $174 billion in 2016, a 2 percent increase from 2015. Global enterprise software spending would grow 5.8 percent to total $332 billion with North America being the dominant regional driving force.

Devices spending is projected to total $627 billion by the end of 2016, down 5.3 percent as the lackluster economic issues surrounding Russia, Japan and Brazil will hold back demand and worldwide PC recovery in 2016.

Additionally, Windows 10 upgrades have further led to PC buying being delayed — consumers are willing to use older PCs longer, once they are upgraded to Windows 10.

Spending in the IT services market is expected to increase 3.7 percent to $898 billion, with Japan being the fastest-growing region.

Communications services spending is projected to total $1.38 trillion in 2016, down 1.4 percent from 2015, mainly as Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America all are forecast to decrease as price wars and declining usage affect virtually all communications services markets.