Global IT and telecom spending will return to growth 3.3% next year, says Gartner, after what it calls “the worst year ever” in 2009.
But the research firm says it will take until 2012 until it recovers to 2008 levels.
Worldwide telecom spending, which is likely to shrink 4% in 2009 to just under $1.9 trillion, will rebound 3.2% next year, Gartner says. IT services spending is expected to grow 4.5%.
Gartner says IT spending would contract 6.9% this year with the hardware sector the worst hit, facing a 16.5% decline over the full year to $317 billion. Hardware spending will be flat in 2010, Gartner expects.
Software spending would fall 2.1% this year and grow 4.8% in 2010, it says.
Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of research, predicted a shift from capex to opex in the corporate IT budget in the coming years, accelerated by takeup of cloud services.
A survey by BT of small businesses in the UK found 75% believe the economy will see an upturn in 2010, and 35% predicting an improvement by January.
BT says the Business Pulse report, with 7,200 respondents, is the UK’s largest survey of SMEs.
“In spite of the challenging environment, 61% are confident about their business prospects for the coming year and 45% say their business operates for the better as a result of the downturn,” BT says.