Brief:

• Global spending growth on mobile hardware, software and services will gradually slow by 2021, when it will reach $1.72 trillion, according an estimate by researcher IDC. The growth rate for its 2016-2021 forecast period will be 2.7% annually, which shows a slowing from this year’s rate of 4.3% to $1.58 trillion from 2016.

• Among industry groups, banking and professional services will spend the most on mobility-related products and services, reaching $55.1 billion and $54.9 billion in 2021, respectively. While mobile connectivity services will be the biggest spending segment at $950 billion in 2021, enterprise mobile services will be one of the fastest-growing segments with a 15.3% yearly growth rate, IDC said.

• The United States will make up one-fourth of all mobility spending, making it the biggest geographic market at nearly $392 billion in 2021. Mainland China will be the second largest country with $337 billion in 2021, followed by Japan, Brazil and the UK.

Insight:

Global spending on mobile products and services shows signs of maturing as the growth rate gradually slows, despite pockets of strength in emerging markets and enterprise spending, IDC estimated. Even though Venezuela is an economic basket case plagued by political in-fighting, hyperinflation and food riots, its comparably tiny market will show the fastest mobile spending growth at 8.2% a year. India, Philippines and Peru also will have above-average growth, while Australia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan will have slight declines in mobility spending.

The industry groups that will have above-average spending growth including professional services, construction, telecommunications, government, healthcare, retail, security and investment services. Construction has been traditionally slow to change to new technologies, but mobile spending will grow in the areas of project administration among a more connected workforce, IDC said.

Enterprise mobile services will be the strongest among technology categories with a 15.3% compound annual growth rate. Hardware will be the second biggest technology category, led by smartphones, which is good news for manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo among the major players globally.