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Gartner sees IT spending hitting $3.7T in 2018, led by blockchain, AI, IoT

There are uncertainties, but enterprises are likely to spend heavily on technology in the hopes of driving revenue growth.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Video: 2018 IT budgets: Where CIOs are spending the money

Global information technology spending will reach $3.7 trillion in 2018, up 4.5 percent from 2017, as Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain drive growth, according to Gartner.

Gartner noted that there's a good bit of uncertainty for 2018 including Brexit, currency issues, and politics, but businesses are going to invest in IT to drive revenue growth.

In Gartner's broad categories, enterprise software will have the most growth, jumping 9.5 percent in 2018 to $389 billion. Gartner noted that more budgets will be allocated to software as a service for functions such as financial management, human resources, and analytics.

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IT services will jump 5.5 percent in 2018 to $985 billion. Communications services represents the biggest part of the IT spending pie for 2018, said Gartner.

Device sales are expected to grow 5.6 percent in 2018 as PC prices creep up. Apple's iOS shipments are expected to grow 9.1 percent in 2018.

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