2014 seen as rebound year for IT spending, says IDC
Global information technology spending is expected to rebound in 2014 with growth of more than 5 percent, according to research firm IDC.
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Like other research outfits, IDC has been steadily lowering its IT forecasts for 2013. IDC now sees 2013 IT spending growing about 4 percent to $2.04 billion. That growth is down from 2012's 5 percent growth clip.
In 2013, growth slowed in emerging markets such as China, Russia and Brazil.
IDC said that it is forecasting a rebound in China in 2014 and continued growth in U.S. and Europe.
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By category, IDC noted that half of the IT spending growth rate in 2013 could be attributed to smartphones and tables. If you exclude mobile phones, IT spending would grow 2.6 percent in 2013. Enterprise IT spending remains tepid with PCs, servers and storage all seeing a slowdown. IDC expects spending on servers, storage and enterprise networks to grow at a 1 percent clip in 2013 and 4 percent in 2014.
IDC's forecasts highlights what happens when emerging markets slow down. Indeed, large companies such as IBM count on emerging markets to provide future growth. When those economies stumble, tech vendors are often exposed.