Worldwide IT revenues are set to rise to $2.7 trillion in 2020.
This represents a compound annual growth rate of 3.3 percent from the figure of $2.4 trillion in 2016, according to an update to International Data Corporation (IDC)’s Worldwide Semiannual IT Spending Guide: Vertical and Company Size.
IDC attributed the strong growth to the investments in solutions such as cloud, mobility and big data in industries such as financial services and manufacturing.
Between them, banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing and telecommunications will generate nearly a third of worldwide IT revenues.
Healthcare will see the fastest growing IT spending, with a CAGR of 5.7 percent, while banking, media and professional services will see CAGRs of 4.9 percent.
Another feature of the forecast period would be a continuing dominance of the market by very large businesses. In the period 45 percent of IT spending will come from businesses with over 1000 employees while small businesses with nine employees or fewer will provide around a quarter.
Businesses with between 100 and 999 employees will see the fastest growth in spending, with each segment having a CAGR of 4.4 percent.
Stephen Minton, vice president, Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC, said that “the strongest growth is still among mid-sized companies, which are more nimble than very large enterprises and less exposed to economic volatility than the smallest businesses."
However, this would come alongside a slowdown in consumer IT spending as demand for products such as PCs, tablets and smartphones falls. In 2015, consumer spending accounted for almost a quarter of IT revenues.
"While the consumer and public sectors have dragged on overall IT spending so far in 2016, we see stronger momentum in other key industries including financial services and manufacturing," said Minton.
He added that the small business market now had some “pent-up demand” for IT assets so, assuming good economic conditions, would be willing to spend more in the future.
