IT spending in Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa ‘nearing $100bn’
IT spending in the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META) will come close to breaking through the $100 billion barrier for the first time in 2023, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
Announcing its regional forecasts for the year ahead in Dubai yesterday, IDC said it expects telecommunications services spending in the region to increase 3.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in 2023 to $133.9bn, with IT spending set to grow 4.3pc YoY to $99.9bn.
Overall spending on information and communications technology (ICT) across META will top $233.8bn this year, an increase of 3.9pc over 2022.
As the region’s digital economy increasingly takes shape, IDC forecasts that digital transformation spending in the META region will top $48.8bn in 2023 and accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16pc over the coming years to cross the $74bn mark in 2026.
“The region will continue to face several headwinds throughout 2023, including volatile demand, high inflation, interest rate hikes, supply chain uncertainties, and currency fluctuations,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice-president and regional managing director for the META region.
“In order to navigate these storms of disruption, organisations will need to invest in strengthening their digital resiliency so they are better positioned to succeed in new market environments as conditions continue to change.
“Regardless of what the economy throws at us over the coming 12 months, the implementation of further digitalisation in critical areas such as customer experience, operations, and financial management – together with a more rapid shift to a ‘digital business’ approach – will be key to separating the thrivers from the survivors. To this end, we expect to see digital transformation spending as a share of overall IT spending continue to grow, reaching 43.2pc in 2026, up from just 29.4pc in 2021.”
Meanwhile, Gartner has projected a decline of 4.4pc in worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones taken together to 1.7bn units this year, after market saw a larger year-on-year decline of 11.9pc last year.
Confidence
“The depressed economic market will continue to dampen demand for devices throughout 2023. In fact, end-user spending on devices is projected to decline 5.1pc in 2023,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director and analyst at Gartner.
“Just as business confidence was beginning to recover after the worst of the pandemic, it has now fallen significantly in most regions. We do not expect relief from inflation and the bottom of the recession to occur until the fourth quarter of 2023.”
The downward trend affecting the devices market will lessen in 2023 on the expectation of a less pessimistic economic outlook through 2023, eventually increasing consumer and business spending.
PC shipments will continue to record the worst decline of all devices segments in 2023. PC shipments are estimated to decline 6.8pc in 2023, after a 16pc decline in 2022.
Through 2023, PC vendors will reduce inventory levels and Gartner analysts expect PC inventory levels will return to normal by the second half of 2023 after significantly increasing in 2022.
“Inventory levels increased due to vendors overestimating market demand and because of the collapse in consumer confidence and dramatic fall in demand,” said Mr Atwal.
Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1173744
