Dive Brief:

• Worldwide IT spending is expected to increase 4.5% in 2017 to reach $2.1 trillion, according to International Data Corporation. Growth will be led by infrastructure hardware, enterprise software and mobile devices, according to an IDC announcement. Worldwide IT spending grew by just 2.5% last year. IDC predicts the momentum will continue, with worldwide IT spending increasing by another 4% in 2018.
• Server spending is expected to grow 4% this year as cloud service providers invest in more data centers to meet demand, while Infrastructure as a Service spending will likely surpass $25 billion in 2017 and more than $50 billion by 2020. Smartphone spending is expected to increase by 7% this year, improving on last year's 1% growth.
• While new technologies — like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and robotics — are gaining a lot of attention, IT spending still centers around cloud and mobility, according to IDC. 

Dive Insight:

It’s all about cloud and mobile right now. Demand for cloud services continues to grow at record pace as companies realize the value of offloading their IT infrastructure to third party experts.

But that demand means cloud providers need to build more data centers to capable of holding and managing extensive data. As a result, investments in data center technologies are outpacing all other types of hardware investments.

While smartphones sales hit a wall last year, new products introduced by Samsung and others this year have proven that innovation is indeed still possible. Apple, which has been criticized for a lack of innovation with its latest releases, is reportedly working on a special edition, 10th anniversary iPhone that will move its designs forward.