The expected fall comes as a result of the economic situation combined with exchange rate movements, according to Gartner. Gartner’s forecast of a 6% decline in IT spending compares to the company’s previous forecast issued in Q1 of 2009, of a 3.8% fall.
Richard Gordon, research vice president and head of global forecasting at Gartner, said: “While the global economic downturns shows signs of easing, this year IT budgets are still being cut and customers will need a lot more persuading before they can feel confident enough to loosen their purse strings.”
He added that the forecasted decline in spending growth for the hardware and software segments have almost stabilised with only minor downward adjustments being forecasted for the current quarter.
“However, the full impact of the global recession on the IT services and telecommunications sectors is still emerging, and forecast growth in these areas has been further reduced significantly. Moreover, the rise in the value of the US dollar against most currencies in recent months will have a material downward impact on 2009 global IT spending growth, which by convention we report based on US dollars”, Gordon said.
Gartner says it expects a decline in the four major IT segments: hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications. The computer hardware segment could see the steepest decline in 2009 with an expected 16.3% fall. The software segment is the least affected with a forecasted spending drop of 1.6%.
Worldwide IT spending forecast (in US$ billions)
| 2008 spending | 2009 spending | 2010 spending | |
| Computing hardware | 379.5 | 317.8 | 317.7 |
| - annual growth | 2.5% | -16.3% | 0.0% |
| Software | 221.9 | 218.3 | 225.3 |
| - annual growth | 10.3% | -1.6% | 3.2% |
| IT Services | 805.9 | 761.0 | 784.0 |
| - annual growth | 8.2% | -5.6% | 3.0% |
| Telecommunications | 1945.2 | 1855.9 | 1898.7 |
| - annual growth | 5.7% | -4.6% | 2.3% |
| All IT | 3352.5 | 3152.9 | 3225.7 |
| - annual growth | 6.2% | -6.0% | 2.3% |
Source: Gartner