India to be the third largest IT market in APAC by 2016

GOA, INDIA: IT spending in India is projected to total $73.3 billion in 2015, a 9.4 percent increase from the $67.1 billion forecast for 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.

“India is forecast to be the third largest IT market within the Asia/Pacific region by the end of 2016 and will further progress to become the second largest market for IT by the end of 2018,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of Research. “Much of the growth from being the number four market in Asia/Pacific to number three is likely to happen in 2015.”

Sondergaard discussed the latest outlook for the IT industry here today as he addressed an audience of more than 900 CIOs and IT leaders at the sold out Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

IT services will record the strongest revenue growth at 15.7 percent in 2015; software will grow at 14 percent. Devices will continue to account for the second largest part of the market with 33 percent share of revenue and will grow 12.6 percent in 2015. The telecommunication services segment will account for 39.3 percent of the Indian ICT market and it is set to grow at 4.2 percent revenue growth in 2015 (see Table 1).

Table 1. India IT End-User Spending Forecast Estimates ($ Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (October 2014)

“IT spending in India is on pace to increase 2.9 percent this year, primarily on the back of strong growth within the IT services and software, which will grow 10.5 percent and 9.6 percent,” said Partha Iyengar, distinguished analyst and Gartner India head of research.

In 2014, mobile devices will grow 13.5 percent, and will dislodge mobile voice services to be the largest segment within the overall IT market in India. Mobile data services will be the fastest growing segment in India, growing 18.2 percent in 2014. Telecommunication services that will account for 41.4 percent of overall IT spend, and it will decline 0.7 percent in 2014.

“The impact that the digital business economy is having on the IT industry is dramatic. Since 2013 650 million new physical objects have come online. 3D printers became a billion dollar market; 10 percent of automobiles became connected; and the number of Chief Data Officers and Chief Digital Officer positions have doubled. In 2015, all of these things will double again,” said Sondergaard.