Global IT spending for 2018 is expected to increase by 4.3 per cent, reaching a total US$3.7 trillion, according to the most recent forecast from research firm Gartner.
Spending in communications services is expected to grow 2.2 per cent and reach a total US$ 1.4 trillion, driving the majority of spending.
The devices segment is expected to grow up to US$697 billion, or five per cent in 2018, with 2017 the first in two years to see an increase in this segment with 5.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, increased average selling prices for premium phones in mature markets are also expected, partially due to the introduction of the iPhone 8 and 10, along with an underlying demand for PCs from businesses replacing machines with Windows 10 PCs is driving the growth in this segment.
Delving deeper, IT services should grow 5.3 per cent, to US$ 980 billion; enterprise software continues to be the area of higher growth, with Gartner predicting an increase in spending of 9.4 per cent, or a total of US$ 387 billion.
Finally, data centre systems will see 1.8 per cent growth, according to the research firm, reaching a total US$176 billion.
"Looking at market opportunity - how profitable a market is, how big it is and how fast is it growing today and for the next five years - we have identified the top markets that companies should be looking to be part of in 2018," Gartner research vice president, John-David Lovelock, said.
"Global IT spending is showing little overall growth, as are traditional markets. These top 10 markets will be the key to remaining relevant and achieving growth in the future."
Among the 10 markets are infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), integrated platform-as-a-service (iPaas) and communications platform-as-a-service (cPaaS), alongside workstream collaboration and workforce analytics.
In addition, areas of growth also include video message-oriented middleware (MOM), endpoint detection and response, smart data discovery and in-memory data grids, with all tied to enabling and enhancing an enterprise's digital transformation efforts.
"The IT buying landscape is changing," Lovelock said. "Digital business transformation is an effort to create connected, platforms and new industry revenue streams.
"Organisations that are not creating new digital business models or new ways to engage constituents or customers, are falling behind. Those vendors that do not move more quickly than their clients, will be left behind."
Gartner analyses sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services for its IT spending forecast - the results cover spending across hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications.
