The IT spending in the MENA region is projected to reach $160 billion in 2019, a 1.8 percent increase from 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.
“In 2019, businesses in MENA are set to increase their IT spending in all segments except for the devices segment,” said John Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner. The achievement of a 1.8 percent growth rate this year is placing MENA 7th out of the 11 regions tracked by Gartner in 2019.
Consumer spending in MENA has reached a tipping point. Consumers are on pace to spend $532 million on upgrading or replacing their mobile phones in 2019, and expect to spend $63.7 billion on mobile services in 2019, up $1 billion from 2018. In the enterprise sector, organizations are increasing their spending on software, which continues to be the fastest growing sector in 2019. Nevertheless, despite the rapid growth of software as a service in the region (25.8 percent in 2019), the region is below the global average for the percentage of total cloud spending. “The MENA region is not expected to reach the level of cloud usage that the United States had in 2017 until the end of 2022,” said Lovelock.
Software and IT services are projected to exhibit the strongest growth in 2019, with an 11.5 and 7.5 percent increase year over year respectively. “Most organizations in the MENA region are paying off years of technology deficits, and implementing software systems that standardize and automate existing business processes,” said Lovelock. “Only a few leading local organizations are overcoming technology hurdles, and moving more quickly toward artificial intelligence and digital business systems, and participation in digital business ecosystems.”
Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.
