IDC forecasts total IT spending by small and medium-size businesses to be nearly $602 billion in 2018, an increase of 4.9% over 2017. With a CAGR of 4.7% for the 2016-2021 forecast period, spending by businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees on IT hardware, software, and services, including business services, is expected to reach $684 billion in 2021.
Hardware will account for around 30% of total SMB spending in 2018. While hardware is currently the largest category of spending, IDC expects it to be overtaken by software in 2019 and IT services in 2021. Devices will be the largest category of spending in 2018, with SMBs allocating $115 billion to personal computing devices, peripherals, and mobile phones.
