IT spending in EMEA region to reach $973 billion in 2019: Gartner
IT spending is expected to surge to $973 billion in the EMEA region in 2019 despite a slump in demand for PCs, tablets, and mobile devices.
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According to Gartner, in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, spending will increase by two percent over the estimated rates of $954 billion in 2018; however, demand for consumer devices will stagnate over the course of the year.
The research agency said on Thursday at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Barcelona that spending on PCs, tablets, and smartphones will slow, and demand for business Windows 10 PCs, in particular, will stagnate due to vendor replacement cycles.
Spending on mobile devices in Western Europe is also predicted to decline from a growth rate of 4.7 percent in 2018 to -1.1 percent next year.
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The EMEA region is the third-slowest area for growth, ahead only of Eurasia and Latin America.
Israel and Saudi Arabia are expected to account for the most growth in the region next year with growth rates of 5.3 and 4.2 percent, respectively.
The devaluation of the US dollar in comparison the Euro, combined with uncertainties caused by Brexit, are also expected to contribute to a lack of substantial growth in the EMEA region.
In the UK specifically, IT spending is anticipated to reach $204 billion in 2019, a decline of 1.9 percent year-over-year.
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"The UK is not expected to exhibit growth above 2 percent until 2020, which is having a downward effect on the EMEA IT spending average throughout the forecast period," said John Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner.
Spending on data centers is expected to decline or, at the least, go flat, due in part due to a small uptick in 2018 prompted by upgrade cycles.
A number of organizations are also believed to have replaced aging data center equipment over the course of this year due to CPU security issues caused by Meltdown and Spectre, resulting in what may be a lack of demand for new hardware in 2019.
In addition, Gartner says that communications services are likely to show scuppered growth next year.
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However, the research agency does expect end-user spending on public cloud services to shore up growth due to an increase in spending of 15 percent, to a total of $38.5 billion.
In October, Gartner analysts estimated that global IT spending will grow by 3.2 percent next year to $3.8 trillion, boosted by enterprise software, cloud, and digital transformation projects.