Stamford-based IT research and advisory firm Gartner released a report in October predicting that IT products spending will grow by 4% in 2021, reaching 3.7 trillion. However, while this number may seem impressive to laypeople, it represents a 5.4% decline compared to the 2019 figure.
During Gartner’s virtual IT Symposium/Xpo in October, its research vice president John-David Lovelock stated that – “In the time that Gartner has been forecasting spending on IT, never has there been a market with this much volatility. While there have been unique stressors due to the global pandemic, enterprises that were more digital before the crisis are doing better and shall thrive in 2023.”
The October report estimates that all IT spending declined in 2020. The purchasing of tech devices saw the most drastic fall with a decline in growth of 13.4%, while the IT services number was down 4.6%, and enterprise software saw a fall of 3.6%. The latter should rebound the quickest because of digitalization efforts from businesses that support remote workforces and those that offer virtual services.
Gartner’s methodology relied on analysis of sales numbers from thousands of vendors peddling multiple IT services and products on the global market.
Live Casino Technology Pushing Online Gaming to New Heights
While most IT sectors are struggling or on a course to recovery, one tech industry on a meteoric rise is the online casino sphere. Since their inception in 1994, online casinos have been slowly chipping away at land-based revenues since the mid-1990s. However, thanks to smartphones and cutting-edge live casino technology, they are now set to take over, as every year, more bettors shift from offline to online.
Online casinos are also not a new thing. Players could go up against a live dealer situated in a casino-like studio since 2003 when Playtech launched the first such platform. Today, the number of live dealer providers is close to a dozen, and Malta-based Pragmatic Play is the newest entrant in this arena. Projections say that the online casino gaming market should grow at an 11.5% rate from 2021 to 2027. Indians are free to play at offshore sites without fear of any legal penalty. Many do so, and they enjoy Andar Bahar and Teen Patti at Ezugi live tables, facing off against Hindi speaking dealers. Casino industry analysts expect to see these platforms attempt to incorporate AR and VR technology soon and provide a more immersive gaming experience. If this were to happen, it would deal a crippling blow to their real-life counterparts.
Streaming Video Services to See Subscriber Slowdown in 2023
The streaming services sector, or better known as OTT (over-the-top) in India, witnessed a 30% rise in paid subscribers from March to July of 2020, per a recent study. Currently, India has 95 OTT platforms across the music, video, and podcast streaming categories. Due to limited entertainment options, since March, time spent with streaming services increased by 30-60%.
However, things aren’t so peachy in the streaming world, as according to data from London-based research firm Omdia/Informa Tech, this short boom period is coming to a close. All industries hit peaks and valleys, and OTT is no exception. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple TV+, and Disney+ all saw a substantial subscriber growth in pandemic-affected markets, but that will come to an end in 2021. Omdia forecasts that these services will see a decline in new subscribers, with Amazon Prime and Netflix reaching the slowest subscription growth since 2015. Apple TV+ should lose about 8 million subscribers this year due to the lack of original content and the termination of 12-month trial accounts. Despite these projections, Disney+ aims to increase prices in 2021, as it believes that it will grow its current user base of 86 million to 260 million in 2024.
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