"Worldwide spending on telecom services declined 0.5% to $1.633 trillion (€1.1 trillion) in 2013, Gartner estimates."
The research firm has also cut its growth forecast for the telecom services segment this year to 1.2%, from 1.9% previously.
Gartner managing vice president Richard Gordon said a number of factors are to blame for the reduced forecast. “[These include] the faster-than-expected growth of wireless-only households, declining voice rates in China and a more frugal usage pattern among European customers.”
Because telecom services account for more than 40% of total IT spending, Gartner has also reduced its growth forecast for the overall IT market by 0.5 percentage points to 3.1%.
This would still represent a turnaround from the anaemic 0.4% growth recorded in 2013. In particular, the devices segment – including PCs, mobile phones and tablets – is expected to recover from a 1.2% decline in 2013 to achieve 4.3% growth this year.
Gartner has also shaved its CAGR forecast for the IT market for 2012-2017. “We are seeing CIOs increasingly reconsidering data center build-out and instead planning faster-than-expected moves to cloud computing,” Gordon explained.
“Despite these small reductions, we continue to anticipate consistent four to five percent annual growth through 2017.”