A Mixed Outlook For The Global Tech Market In 2013 And 2014

CIOs in different regions of the world will generally match changes in their budgets to local economic conditions; their purchases of IT goods and services in 2013 and 2014 will grow, stay flat, or decline depending on where they are. CIOs in the US should plan for 5% to 6% growth in tech buying in 2013 and 2014; those in Europe will generally make lower IT purchases in 2013, rebounding to small increases in 2014. In Canada, Japan, Australia, and India, modest rises are in store. In China, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, growth rates will be in the high single digits, though lower than their peaks in 2011. In general, CIOs will focus their biggest spending increases on software, where growth globally will be 5.7% (in local currency terms) in 2013 and 7.3% in 2014. Analytics and applications in general and SaaS applications in particular will attract the fastest growth of any IT spending category. IT consulting and implementation services will also rise in line with higher software spending. Computer equipment spending will lag, with the exception of tablets and Apple PCs. Spending on IT outsourcing will grow more slowly than the overall tech market, and communications equipment will be weak.