Forrester has released its latest forecasts regarding IT spending in 2013, and many interesting trends have been noted. Leading them all, however, is the fact that the majority of all IT spending this year will go into apps! In total, about $2 trillion will be invested into software, hardware, and IT services by enterprises and governments. At $234 billion, however, apps will be the largest piece of the pie (other large pieces are custom-built software, systems integration, and consulting).

This trend goes hand in hand with the exploding mobile device industry, which continues to record unprecedented sales in many regions. The increasing popularity of smartphones fuels the booming app development market, as users, clamour for a variety of entertaining and useful apps. The evidence of growing mobile activity can be seen in total usage hours, app downloads, money spent inside apps, and many other metrics.
Forrester’s research also shows that a number of related disruptions are continuing to have long-term effects on a variety of industry segments. For example:

Mobile devices are shrinking the PC market
PC sales will grow by 3% this year. A nice little gain, right? Well, not compared to the over 30% increase in tablet sales. If you’re reading this on an iPad, you might guess who is leading this market segment, and you’d be correct. iPad sales comprise about two-thirds of total sales, with Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Surface following behind. Tablets are popular not just with consumers, but also with large-scale entities from the business and government sectors, and these sales help drive the success of mobile devices.
This preference for Apple also carries over into the PC market, where Windows device sales will decrease by about $7 billion, and Apple device sales will increase by $6 billion. That is, Apple’s dominance in the mobile market is leading to some nice benefits in other markets as well. But where is all of this spending coming from? Well…

America loves IT
The U.S. still accounts for more IT consumption than any other region, in terms of total spending. The fastest-growing region, however, might surprise you. While the population numbers in Asia often make it a growth leader, Latin America will actually soon see the largest increase in IT spending. By 2014, it is projected to be the fastest-growing region, with IT spending increasing at a rate of nearly 11%.

Software is huge
With the popularity of cloud computing, SaaS, big data analytics, and mobile apps, many investors are opting for centralized solutions. Software development will thus grow by over 3% this year and double that rate in 2014.
The message from all of this data is clear: tons of money will flow into the development of apps. And amazingly, the rate of the flow is scheduled to increase!