Spending on mobility-related hardware, software on services in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan region is on track to grow 5.3% this year to more than $540.7 billion, IDC predicts.
The research firm expects the market to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 2.8% through to 2021, when it will surpass $1.7 trillion.
IDC made the projections as part of its Worldwide Semiannual Mobility Spending Guide, which covers 53 markets including Hong Kong across eight regions.
Mobility services is the largest segment of the market, accounting for nearly 51% of total spending in 2017. The segment is expected to reach $285.4 billion in 2021.
While this segment is dominated by mobile connectivity services – projected to account for more than 95% of total spending – enterprise mobility services focused on the planning, implementation, operation, and maintenance and support of mobile strategies, applications and devices are seeing strong growth.
Hardware is the second largest technology category, accounting for $250.3 billion in revenue in 2017, with smartphones set to account for around 80% to 85% of all hardware spending over the forecast period. China is by far the largest smartphone market in the region, accounting for around 68.2% market share.
Software makes up the remainder of the market, and despite being the smallest category is experiencing strong growth. IDC is projecting a 24.2% CAGR over the period,. Mobile enterprise applications will be the largest segment, accounting for around $1.61 billion in spending by 2021.
First published in Computerworld Hong Kong