Gartner predicts 3.7 per cent IT growth in 2012

A tech research firm has predicted the IT world will continue to spend hard-earned cash on IT services, estimating 3.7 per cent growth in the sector this year.

Gartner believes that tech firms would be spending even more if it wasn't for natural occurrences like the Thailand floods which affected the hard disc drive industry, alongside the Eurozone crisis and economic growth cites Computer World.

Still, global IT spending is still set to reach monstrously high levels, with TechCrunch reporting an estimated 3.8 trillion dollars (£2.5 trillion) worldwide.

The report suggests areas like telecom equipment and enterprise software (in addition to the greater ES industry) will be the fastest-growing IT sectors in 2012. Telecom equipment, such as modems and telephones, will grow at 6.9 per cent while enterprise software will grow by 6.4 per cent.

Furthermore, computing hardware (5.1 per cent), IT services (3.1 per cent) and telecom services (2.3 per cent) will also experience growth over the course of the next 12 months.

Gartner's predictions fall in line with analyst group Piper Jaffray, who also believe that IT spend will increase "by four or five per cent" this year.

A survey by the group suggests the results are, on the whole, "overall positive for the IT hardware sector", with the majority of respondents looking to increase their IT spend over the next 12 months.

Ashley Curtis