Gartner: Worldwide IT spending to decline 6% in 2009

Worldwide IT spending is on pace to total $3.2 trillion in 2009, a 6 percent decline from 2008 spending of $3.4 trillion, according to Gartner.

Continued weak IT spending because of the economic situation combined with the effect of exchange rate movements has resulted in Gartner lowering its 2009 forecast from its 1Q09 projection. In March of this year, Gartner had forecast 2009 IT spending to decline 3.8 percent.

All four major segments of IT — hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications — will experience declining revenue, something that did not happen in the 2001 downturn.

The computing hardware segment will experience the steepest decline in 2009, with spending projected to decline 16.3 percent. The software segment will show the slightest decrease in 2009, with spending forecast to drop 1.6 percent.