Global Technology Market 2014 – IT spending worldwide expected to be better

Forrester Research predicts global technology market will grow by 6.2% to $2.22 trillion in 2014, fueled by an improving economy and growing interest in areas such as mobility and cloud computing and the market is dominated by United States followed by Europe that is slowly recovering from recession and even BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) too are recovering from sluggish economic growth and Latin America and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are expected to do well. The report forecasts technology spending is expected to grow in Brazil (11.6%), Mexico (10.1%), at 11.6% and 10.1%, China and India are also expected to grow 7.7 % each.

According to Forrester analysts growth will pick up pace in 2015 and forecasted to grow by 8.1%. “Tech Twelve country (Canada, the US, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Israel, Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand) CIOs can be more aggressive in their budget plans. Businesses and governments in these countries are eager to embrace new technologies and feel competitive pressure to do so given the pace of adoption by competitors in their own and similar countries,” the report said.

Software will account for the largest share of tech spending in 2014, at $568 billion, followed by IT outsourcing at $442 billion, IT consulting and integration services at $421 billion, computer equipment with $416 billion and communications equipment at $373 billion, according to Forrester's report. CIOs will focus their biggest spending increases on software, where growth globally will be 7.1% (in local currency terms) in 2014 and 10.2% in 2015. Analytics, applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are expected to see the fastest growth of any IT spending category. IT consulting and implementation services will also raise in line with higher software spending, according to Forrester Research.

Forrester Analysts led by Andrew Bartels expect hardware sales to trail behind software but the tablet market is expected to perform well dragged by slow and modest growth in laptops and PCs. The report also notes that spending on technology such as software as a service, mobile devices and tablets, platform-as-a-service (PaaS); smart computing and big data, real-time predictive analytics and big data tools will grow in 2014. IT outsourcing will be one of the weaker segments in 2014 and it will pick up in 2015, according to the report. Global technology market had seen a tough demand conditions in the past two years and the growth rates had been low which is expected to slightly pick up in 2014 and analysts predict a good growth in 2015. Economic and political instability in many countries across the globe are also a major concern for the technology market growth. Indian market will also see sluggish growth as there is General elections this year and political instability is major concern for the economy.