SPENDING ON technology in Hong Kong and the mainland will go up next year, according Gartner, but this may not be good news for vendors.
One of Gartner's principal analysts, Andrew Chetham, said that although the spending would be higher, there were likely to be big battles to get the contracts.
'Enterprise spending on information communication and technology in the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow 7.6 per cent next year to US$208.7 billion compared with the global figure of US$1.75 trillion. For vendors, the stakes couldn't be higher: if they miss this transition, they'll be history. If they hit it right, life will be good,' he said.
Although the spending will be high, it will be quite different from past spending, he said.
'The future is extraordinarily bright and in just five years the IT industry will have little resemblance to that of today - yielding extraordinary benefits with network security, convergence, IP telephony, software as services and instant messaging all maturing within 36 months,' he said.
The mainland's IT spending will see the largest growth, rising to 120.2 billion yuan, while Hong Kong will spend about $50 billion.
Although the mainland's spending will increase in every area, according to Gartner, Hong Kong will most likely see a decline in hardware sales and modest increases in other areas.