Friday, January 3, 2014

Global Technology Market 2014 – IT spending worldwide expected to be better

Forrester Research predicts global technology market will grow by 6.2% to $2.22 trillion in 2014, fueled by an improving economy and growing interest in areas such as mobility and cloud computing and the market is dominated by United States followed by Europe that is slowly recovering from recession and even BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) too are recovering from sluggish economic growth and Latin America and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are expected to do well. The report forecasts technology spending is expected to grow in Brazil (11.6%), Mexico (10.1%), at 11.6% and 10.1%, China and India are also expected to grow 7.7 % each.

According to Forrester analysts growth will pick up pace in 2015 and forecasted to grow by 8.1%. “Tech Twelve country (Canada, the US, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Israel, Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand) CIOs can be more aggressive in their budget plans. Businesses and governments in these countries are eager to embrace new technologies and feel competitive pressure to do so given the pace of adoption by competitors in their own and similar countries,” the report said.

Software will account for the largest share of tech spending in 2014, at $568 billion, followed by IT outsourcing at $442 billion, IT consulting and integration services at $421 billion, computer equipment with $416 billion and communications equipment at $373 billion, according to Forrester's report. CIOs will focus their biggest spending increases on software, where growth globally will be 7.1% (in local currency terms) in 2014 and 10.2% in 2015. Analytics, applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are expected to see the fastest growth of any IT spending category. IT consulting and implementation services will also raise in line with higher software spending, according to Forrester Research.


Forrester Analysts led by Andrew Bartels expect hardware sales to trail behind software but the tablet market is expected to perform well dragged by slow and modest growth in laptops and PCs. The report also notes that spending on technology such as software as a service, mobile devices and tablets, platform-as-a-service (PaaS); smart computing and big data, real-time predictive analytics and big data tools will grow in 2014. IT outsourcing will be one of the weaker segments in 2014 and it will pick up in 2015, according to the report. Global technology market had seen a tough demand conditions in the past two years and the growth rates had been low which is expected to slightly pick up in 2014 and analysts predict a good growth in 2015. Economic and political instability in many countries across the globe are also a major concern for the technology market growth. Indian market will also see sluggish growth as there is General elections this year and political instability is major concern for the economy. 

Global Mobile App Stores Market 2013 – Explosive growth continues till 2017

IT research firm Gartner estimated that worldwide Mobile app stores revenues to reach $26 billion in 2013 compared to $18 billion in 2012 and annual downloads will reach 102 billion in 2013, up from 64 billion in 2012. 91% of total downloads are Free apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) accounts for 48% of app store revenue by 2017, up from 11%in 2012. There is a linear relationship between the apps download and the sales of new mobile devices as the customers who buy new mobile phones definitely download apps and as the mobile buying cycle slows down so does the mobile apps downloads. The industry is expected to continue its explosive growth in future also due to upgrading of mobile networks from 2G to 3G to 4G which will increase the speed of internet and data downloads on the mobile phones and also the mobile phone manufacturers launching more and more devices with powerful processors, touch screens, increase in display screen sizes and finally developers developing more apps.

Apple iOS and Google Android app stores combined are the dominant players in this market and are forecasted to account for 90 percent of global downloads in 2017. Key reason for their dominance is their advanced ecosystems and active developer communities. Free apps currently account for about 60% and 80% of the total available apps in Apple's App Store and Google Play, respectively. Gartner Research highlights IAP is a major revenue contributor to Apple’s App Store revenue fueled by the increasing numbers of iPhones and iPads. Other platforms including Android and Microsoft stores have not been able to monetize their apps, but analysts expect they will also see IAP contributions increase in the future.

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Free Downloads
57,331
92,876
127,704
167,054
211,313
253,914
Paid-for Downloads
6,654
9,186
11,105
12,574
13,488
14,778
Total Downloads
63,985
102,062
138,809
179,628
224,801
268,692
Free Downloads %
89.6
91.0
92.0
93.0
94.0
94.5
Source: Gartner (September 2013)

Email and calendaring (46%), Instant Messaging (IM) (37%), and office & personal productivity (26%) are the three most popular uses of mobile applications today according to Gartner survey. CRM, at 19%, and ERP, at 17%, have been predicted to grow the fastest of all enterprise applications on the mobile over the next three years. Mobile apps are no longer a consumer phenomenon and there has been an increase in adoption by enterprise companies and are developing and launching mobile apps. Apps are being used to engage with both the consumers and employees. Smartphones sales are increasing and the companies are adopting the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) will also fuel the enterprise apps growth. But challenges remain for the App stores in terms of monetizing the applications and increasing their revenues. Customers are not inclining to pay for apps and making them pay is the biggest challenge for the industry.