Global IT spending is projected to reach $3.5 trillion in 2017 — a 2.4 per cent increase from 2016, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Global spending on devices which include PCs, tablets and mobile phones is projected to grow 3.8 per cent in 2017 to reach $654 billion — an increase of 1.7 per cent from previous quarter's forecast . 

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The mobile phone growth will be driven by increased average selling prices (ASPs) for premium phones in mature markets due to the 10th anniversary of the iPhone while the tablet market may continue to decline.

"Digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported," said John-David Lovelock, Vice President, Gartner, in a statement.

The growth rate is up from the previous quarter's forecast of 1.4 per cent owing to decline of the US dollar against many foreign currencies.

According to Gartner, the worldwide enterprise software market is forecast to grow 7.6 per cent in 2017.

As software applications allow more organisations to derive revenue from digital business channels, there will be a stronger need to automate and release new applications and functionality.

"The Cloud-based tools allow infrastructure and operations (I&O) organisations to more rapidly add functionality and adopt newer technologies to help them manage faster application release cycles," Lovelock noted.