Malaysia's IT spending to grow 7.6% in 2016 - Gartner

by **Cals** Wed 20 Jan 2016, 18:16

Malaysia's IT spending to grow 7.6% in 2016 - Gartner
By Alex Chong / theedgemarkets.com | January 20, 2016 : 4:43 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): Market tracker Gartner has forecasted Malaysia's information technology (IT) spending this year to grow by 7.6% to RM69 billion, which is above the average growth of 4.5% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Comparatively, worldwide IT spending is forecast to total US$3.54 trillion dollars in 2016, just a 0.6% increase over 2015 spending of US$3.52 trillion dollars, Gartner said in a statement. 2015 saw the largest US dollar drop in IT spending since Gartner began tracking IT spending.
"The rising US dollar is the villain behind 2015 results," said Gartner research vice president John-David Lovelock.
"US multinationals' revenue faced currency headwinds in 2015. However, in 2016 those headwinds go away and they can expect an additional 5% growth," he said.
The market research firm said that globally, the devices market (PCs, ultramobiles, mobile phones, tablets and printers) is forecast to decline 1.9% in 2016, due to slower economic growth, a shift in phone spending in emerging markets to lower-cost phones, and weak tablet adoption.
According to Gartner's forecast, data centre systems' spending is expected to see a 3% growth to US$75 billion in 2016, while enterprise software spending is projected to increase 5.3% this year, despite the worsening economic environment in emerging markets.
Spending in the IT services market is expected to grow 3.1% to US$940 billion in 2016, following a decline of 4.5% in 2015. Telecom services spending, on the other hand, is projected to decline 1.2% in 2016, with spending reaching US$1,454 trillion.
The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets. Its forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services.