My hunch is that most people will interpret the term "Global IT spending" to mean "spending by corporate IT departments." That is obviously not what Gartner intends; they are using the term more like "spending on computers and computer-related stuff," even when that spending is done by individual consumers.
We can tell that because Gartner's number for "media tablets" is about the same as everyone else's, and the other guys are counting "tablet sales in general," regardless of where sold. In fact I have yet to see a breakdown of forecasted sales of 'tablets' that distinguishes between those sold to consumers and those sold for enterprise use.
Sales of media tablets such as Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and an army of other competitors from RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard will give global information technology spending a boost, according to the latest forecast from Gartner.
The research firm said it has added tablet spending to its hardware spending estimates. The result: Global IT spending will be $3.6 trillion in 2011, up 5.6 percent from 2010. Gartner had projected growth of 5.1 percent for 2011.
In the hardware category, tablets added 2 percent of annual growth for 2011. Tablet spending should hit $29.4 billion in 2011, up from $9.6 billion in 2010. Spending on tablets should grow about 52 percent a year on average through 2015.
Gartner noted that the decline of the U.S. dollar as well as media tablet sales boosted its growth expectations. Unrest in the Middle East will have little impact on IT spending since that region only accounts for 2 percent of global IT spending. The earthquakes in Japan may alter the supply chain picture and could impact IT spending at some point.
