Spending on information technology products and services in the Asia Pacific region is forecast to grow 5.5 percent in 2014 to reach US$767 billion, up from $727 billion this year, and reach $933 billion in 2017, says Gartner.
In China, spending is forecast to grow 6.7 percent in 2013 and accelerate to 8.7 percent growth in 2014. Chinese middle class is playing a major role on the rest of the economy and IT, moving consumer and enterprise markets.
Major verticals that drive IT innovation in China include automation of health, banking, government, communications and manufacturing are major IT drivers. These vertical industries will offer the greatest opportunities for technology vendors in the next 5 years.
In Australia, IT spending is forecast to reach almost A$77.2 billion in 2014, up 2.3 percent from $75.5 billion in 2013. The largest category of spending is IT services, forecast to reach $29.7 billion in 2014, followed by telecommunications services at $26.9 billion.
Spending on mobile devices is forecast to fall from more than $4 billion this year to $3.7 billion in 2014.
Software still represents the fastest growing category of IT spending in Australia, forecast to grow 7.8 percent from almost $7.1 billion in 2013 to more than $7.6 billion in 2014.
Digital changes the IT market in a big way through the Internet of Things, said Gartner research.
In 2009, there were 2.5 billion connected devices with unique IP addresses to the Internet, most of these were devices people carry such as cell phones and PCs. In 2020, there will be up to 30 billion devices connected with unique IP addresses, most of which will be products, the research predicts.
Gartner predicts that the total economic value add for the Internet of Things will be US$1.9 trillion dollars in 2020, benefiting a wide range of industries, such as , healthcare, retail, and transportation.
In the technology and telecom sectors, revenue associated with the Internet of Things will exceed US$309 billion per year by 2020.
Mobile smart devices have taken over the technology world. By 2017, new device categories: mobile phones, tablets, and ultra-mobile PCs will represent more than 80 percent of device spending. By 2017, nearly half of first-time computer purchases will be a tablet.
With the growth of “things” connected to Internet, people and their activities pour data on to Internet. Effective digital enterprises harness that data to change their business.
With all of this valuable data within the IT organization, cyber security will be an ongoing concern, both inside and outside the enterprise. IT leaders should anticipate events and headlines that continuously raise public awareness or create fear.
Companies should build a portfolio of security vendors because no single vendor addresses more than a fraction of their problem, Gartner said.
