Global IT spending is expected to increase by 3.1% to $3.8 trillion in 2014, according to Gartner.
The analyst firm expects hardware spend on PCs, mobile phones and tablets to grow by 4.3% after a 1.2% decline last year, and claimed the new year will mark the convergence of the three sectors so that price becomes the only differential.
Enterprise software spending is set to experience the highest growth, at 6.8%, while CRM and SCM spends are also expected to rise.
Gartner managing VP Richard Gordon said: "Investment will also be aligned to B2B analytics, particularly in the SCM space, where annual spending is expected to grow 10.6 percent in 2014."
In 2014, expenditure on telecoms services is expected to grow by 1.2%, he added.
"A number of factors are involved, including the faster-than-expected growth of wireless-only households, declining voice rates in China and a more frugal usage pattern among European customers.
"The latter coincides in Western Europe with a breakout of fierce price competition among communications service providers to retain customers and attract new ones."
Expenditure on data centre systems is expected to decrease by 2.9% in 2014 due to a reduction in external controller-based storage and enterprise communications applications.
