Declines in device sales will be more than offset by growth in other areas, according to Gartner Research’s latest predictions. Credit: Thinkstock Overall spending on IT products and services is expected to climb by about 5.5% this year, fueled mainly by software and services, according to a forecast from tech analyst firm Gartner Research. That level of growth would result in a total expenditure of $4.6 trillion. In the area of data center systems, which includes servers, internal controller-based systems and networking equipment among other things, the latter is likely to prove a robust engine of growth, with Gartner predicting 8.4% year-on-year growth in constant currency. According to the forecast’s author, John-David Lovelock, the data center category as a whole should rise by 3.7% in 2023. “[Data center vendors] are still trying to dig out from under supply chain problems,” he said. “Spending would have been even higher if manufacturers would’ve been able to build more, spend more and ship more.” The software category is predicted to show the largest year-on-year growth figures in Gartner’s forecast, at 12.3%. That’s driven largely by analytics and business intelligence, as well as custom applications for work, Lovelock said. “Most of the things in the analytics platform space, except for the older ones, are doing very well,” he noted. The lone category predicted to shrink in size this year is endpoint devices, set to decline by 4.6%. The issue there, according to Lovelock, is that most of the market is highly saturated and users don’t have a particular reason to purchase new devices or upgrade existing ones at the moment. “With inflation cutting the purchasing power of consumers, they’re holding off on replacements,” he said, noting that the spending spikes seen in 2020 and 2021 were largely the product of COVID-induced remote work demands. The cloud market is also set to see increased spending, driven, for the first time, by increased pricing. While the cloud narrative since the technology’s widespread adoption in the 2010s has mostly been of scalability and build-outs leading to lower prices, increased labor and energy costs will finally start pushing prices higher, Lovelock said. “There’s likely going to be some vendors raising their prices this year as they try and hold off rising costs,” he said. “For the next three years, some of the increase in spending is going to be about an increase in price, not an increase in use.” Despite cautious overall economic forecasts, IT spending growth should continue to ramp up for the foreseeable future, according to Gartner, which predicted a further 8.6% growth in 2024. Related content news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills opinion Why you’ll soon have a digital clone of your own AI isn’t going to replace you at work. You will. By Mike Elgan May 02, 2024 7 mins Augmented Reality Generative AI Virtual Reality Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe