Tablets to drive IT Spend : Gartner

Information Technology spending worldwide would reach $3.6 trillion in 2011. This is a 5.6% increase from the 2010 levels. IT spend includes the amount spent on hardware, software, services and telecom. Spend on tablets was $9.6 billion in 2010. 2011 estimate for media tablets is $29.4 billion. Adding media tablets has raised the global hardware spend by 2 percentage points from 7.5% to 9.5%. The estimate was done by taking the political unrest in middle east but did not take the Japan disaster into account.

It’s amazing how a new category which was born only a year ago was able to drive the spend into billions of dollars. The three fold rise from the year 2010 itself tells us that tablets will be a mainstay. And the trend will continue till 2015 with a 52% year on year growth. A great opportunity just waiting to be grabbed. Now we know why the global majors are launching their tablets in a hurry.

The trend would possible be reflected in India too. Considering the global majors renewed interest in launching tablets as quickly as they can. RIM Playbook will hit Indian shores this May, Motorola Xoom isn’t far behind, iPad 2 is rumored to hit India and HCL has launched not one but three tablets. A very good indication that Gartner’s projections could as well be modest.

Must read : Tablets in India, the story so far…

Source : Gartner