Global IT spending will total $3.7tn (pound 2.28tn) in 2013, a 4.2 per cent increase from 2012, according to analyst firm Gartner.
In 2012, $3.6tn (pound 2.23tn) was spent on IT and this was set to rise in 2013 by only 3.8 per cent, according to figures that Gartner released in the third quarter of 2012.
However, the analyst group has revised its initial forecast, but claims that much of the increase is simply the result of potential gains in the value of foreign currencies against the US dollar.
The area of highest growth, according to Gartner, will be in enterprise software, where spending is expected to increase from $278bn (pound 172bn) in 2012 to $296bn (pound 183bn) in 2013. The trend is set to continue in 2014, with spending forecast at $316bn (pound 195bn).
Another growth area is devices, which includes PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers. It expects to see a 6.3 per cent growth from 2012 to reach $666bn (pound 412bn). However, this is less than an earlier Gartner forecast for 2013, which estimated $706bn (pound 436bn) being spent worldwide on devices, up 7.9 per cent on 2012.
"The tablet market has seen greater price competition from Android devices as well as smaller, lower-priced devices in emerging markets," said Gartner managing vice president Richard Gordon.
"It is ultimately this shift toward relatively lower-priced tablets that lowers our average selling prices forecast for 2012 through 2016 which, in turn, is responsible for slowing device spending growth in general, and PC and tablet spending growth in particular," he added.
The telecoms services market is expected to see the slowest growth at only 2.4 per cent, although this is still an improvement on the slight 2012 decline of -0.1 per cent.
Alternative forecasts
Meanwhile, research firm Forrester is forecasting a 5.4 per cent growth in global tech spending for 2013, but unlike the US and Asia Pacific, it says that Europe will cut IT buying in 2013 as it continues to be mired in recession.
The global economic squeeze on IT budgets will end in 2013 as pent-up demand for new technologies surfaces and drives growth in IT spending, while Europe will get to grip with its debt problems, the analyst group said.
"We think that by the second half of 2013... European economies will start to move out of recession," Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels said.
Forrester's report also highlights computer hardware as an area of concern and states that weaknesses will persist in 2013, with sales of servers and storage declining in particular.
It also expects global corporate spending on "Wintel PCs" and tablets to be flat in 2013 as organisations replace their old Windows-based PCs with Windows 8 devices.
