IT devices total spending worldwide 2012-2026

Global spending on devices (PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and printers) from 2012 to 2026

Every year the world spends hundreds of billions of dollars on the hardware that powers daily digital life: the PCs on desks, the tablets on laps, the mobile phones in pockets and the printers in offices. Analysts at Gartner group these four product categories together as the devices segment of global information technology spending, and tracking that figure offers a revealing window into the health of the consumer and business technology market. Between 2012 and 2026, worldwide device spending has swung from roughly $628 billion to a projected record of about $856 billion, but the path between those points has been anything but a straight line. The biggest single category within this total is mobile phones, the competitive dynamics of which are explored in our smartphone market share by vendor analysis.

The device spending line tells the story of more than a decade of technological change. It rose in the early 2010s as smartphones and tablets went mainstream, sagged in the middle of the decade as the PC market slumped and tablet sales saturated, recovered in the late 2010s, and then exploded during the pandemic as locked down households and remote workers rushed to buy laptops, tablets and phones. After a sharp correction, spending has climbed back to fresh records, lifted recently by rising prices and the arrival of artificial intelligence enabled devices. The role of AI in reshaping technology demand is covered in our artificial intelligence worldwide statistics overview.

It is worth being clear about what these numbers represent. They are Gartner's estimates of worldwide end user spending on devices, expressed in current U.S. dollars, and like all forecasts they are revised as new data arrives. The most recent years are based on Gartner's latest published forecasts, while earlier figures are drawn from its historical estimates, which the firm updates over time. Currency movements, shifting average selling prices and changing replacement cycles all influence the totals, so the figures are best read as a guide to the overall trend rather than precise accounting results. How this hardware spending sits alongside the revenue of the technology giants is set out in our big tech companies revenue comparison analysis.

Understanding device spending matters because these four product categories are the physical gateway to the entire digital economy. Every cloud service, every app, every piece of software and every online purchase ultimately reaches people through a PC, tablet or phone, which is why the health of the device market is closely watched as a leading indicator of broader technology demand. A strong year for devices often signals confident consumers and businesses willing to invest, while a slump can foreshadow caution across the wider economy. The device line is, in that sense, a useful early read on the mood of the global technology market as a whole, even as spending power gradually shifts toward the software and services that run on top of the hardware.

Worldwide Device Spending by Year

The table lays out worldwide device spending for every year from 2012 to 2026, alongside the annual rate of change. Reading down the columns, three distinct phases stand out. The early and middle years hover in a band between $600 billion and $700 billion, with a noticeable dip in 2015 and 2016. The pandemic year of 2021 leaps out, with spending surging past $800 billion in a single extraordinary year. The most recent rows show a recovery from the post pandemic correction back to record territory, driven by higher prices rather than a surge in the number of devices sold. Sorting the growth column quickly reveals just how volatile this market can be, swinging from double digit gains to double digit declines within a few years.

The Ups and Downs: Year-on-Year Growth

Expressed as annual growth rates, the device market looks far more turbulent than its relatively stable headline totals suggest. The standout year is 2021, when spending jumped more than 20 percent as the pandemic triggered a once in a generation wave of device buying. That boom was followed by an equally dramatic bust, with spending falling more than 10 percent in 2022 as demand that had been pulled forward evaporated and households paused upgrades. The mid decade years of 2015 and 2016 show another soft patch, when a slumping PC market and saturated tablet sales dragged the total down. These swings make device spending one of the more cyclical corners of the technology economy.

The pattern of booms and busts reflects the unusual nature of device demand. Unlike software subscriptions or cloud services, which generate steady recurring revenue, devices are durable goods that consumers and businesses replace only every few years. When a wave of buying occurs, whether driven by a new technology, a pandemic or a refresh cycle, it tends to pull demand forward and leave a hole in following years. This is exactly what happened around the pandemic, and Gartner has warned that the recent recovery could similarly cool once the current upgrade wave passes. The replacement cycle dynamic is a key reason device spending rarely grows in a smooth, predictable line the way other parts of the IT budget often do.

More Than $10 Trillion Spent in 15 Years

Adding up every year's spending reveals the sheer scale of the global device market over time. Between 2012 and 2026, the world is on course to have spent more than $10.5 trillion on PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers, a staggering sum that underlines how central these devices have become to modern life and work. The cumulative line climbs relentlessly, since even in weak years the world still spends well over half a trillion dollars on hardware. More than a third of that entire fifteen year total has been spent in just the last five years, reflecting both higher prices and the enduring importance of personal devices even as spending shifts toward cloud and software elsewhere in the technology budget.

The cumulative figure also puts the device market in perspective against other parts of the economy. Spending of more than $10 trillion over the period rivals the entire annual economic output of major nations, and it flows to a relatively concentrated group of manufacturers, chip makers and component suppliers. For the companies at the top of this market, capturing even a small additional share of global device spending translates into billions in revenue, which is why competition in smartphones and PCs remains so fierce. The way this hardware spending compares with the recurring revenue of internet and software firms is examined in our internet companies revenue analysis.

It is also worth noting how concentrated this enormous spending has become among a handful of dominant manufacturers. A small group of smartphone and PC makers, led by names such as Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and HP, capture the lion's share of the more than $10 trillion spent over the period, supported by an even smaller group of chip and component suppliers. This concentration means that shifts in global device spending flow disproportionately to a few balance sheets, which is why the quarterly results of the largest device makers are scrutinised so closely as a proxy for the health of the entire market. The competitive battle for that spending never lets up.

Device Spending by Era

Grouping the years into three five year eras smooths out the annual noise and reveals a clear upward drift in the baseline level of device spending. In the 2012 to 2016 era, spending averaged around $647 billion a year, held back by the mid decade PC slump. The 2017 to 2021 era lifted the average to roughly $706 billion, boosted by the late decade recovery and the enormous pandemic spike at its end. The most recent 2022 to 2026 era pushes the average higher still, to about $757 billion, as the market has settled into a higher band driven by premium pricing and AI enabled hardware. Each era has been larger than the last, even though individual years within them have been volatile.

The steady rise in the era averages is an important counterpoint to the dramatic year to year swings. While any single year can surge or slump, the underlying trend over five year periods is one of gradual, persistent growth. This reflects the deepening role of personal devices in every aspect of life and work, as well as the steady upward creep of prices, particularly for premium smartphones and high specification laptops. It also shows that, despite repeated predictions of a saturated and declining device market, global spending has continued to grind higher over the long run, supported by population growth, rising incomes in emerging markets and the constant reinvention of devices through new features and capabilities.

Devices in the Bigger IT Picture

Device spending is large, but it is only one piece of a much bigger global IT budget. In 2026, worldwide IT spending is forecast to exceed $6 trillion, spread across five major segments: IT services, software, communications services, devices and data center systems. Devices, at around $856 billion, account for roughly one seventh of the total, ranking behind the giant IT services and software categories but ahead of, or close to, data center systems. This breakdown shows that while devices remain a substantial market, the bulk of technology spending now flows toward services, software and the infrastructure behind cloud computing. How those revenue pools are distributed among the leading firms is detailed in our largest source of revenue of leading tech companies analysis.

The position of devices within the wider IT budget has been shifting steadily. A decade ago, hardware commanded a larger share of technology spending, but the relentless growth of cloud services, enterprise software and, more recently, artificial intelligence infrastructure has gradually reduced the relative weight of devices. This does not mean device spending is shrinking, far from it, but rather that the rest of the IT budget is growing faster. The result is a technology economy in which hardware remains essential but is no longer the centre of gravity, as spending power migrates toward the software and services layered on top of the devices.

The five segment structure also helps explain why technology has proved so resilient as an investment theme. When one category slows, another often accelerates, keeping total IT spending on a steady upward path even through recessions and shocks. During the pandemic it was devices that surged; more recently it has been data center systems and software, powered by artificial intelligence. This rotation of growth between segments gives the overall technology budget a stability that any single category, including devices, lacks on its own. For the industry as a whole, the diversification across hardware, software, services and infrastructure is a source of enduring strength.

Devices Lose Ground to Data Centers

Perhaps the most striking shift in the technology budget is the explosive rise of data center spending, driven by the race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. As recently as 2021, worldwide spending on data center systems was a fraction of device spending, but it has since surged as hyperscale cloud providers pour money into AI optimised servers. By 2026, data center systems spending is forecast to approach $788 billion, closing in on the roughly $856 billion spent on devices. The two lines, once far apart, are converging rapidly. The companies winning this data center boom are profiled in our Nvidia statistics and facts analysis of the AI hardware market.

This convergence marks a profound reordering of technology priorities. For most of the past two decades, devices were the dominant hardware category, the place where most computing money was spent. Now, the centre of hardware investment is shifting from the billions of personal devices in people's hands to the concentrated data centers that train and run artificial intelligence models. If current trends continue, data center spending could soon overtake device spending altogether, a milestone that would symbolise the transition from the personal computing era to the AI infrastructure era. The cloud platforms driving this build out are examined in our big three cloud market analysis.

Where IT Spending Is Growing Fastest in 2026

Looking at growth rates rather than absolute size makes the shift in technology spending even clearer. In 2026, data center systems spending is forecast to grow by around 32 percent, by far the fastest of any segment, as the AI infrastructure boom accelerates. Software is set to grow about 15 percent, while IT services and devices are each expected to grow in the high single digits. Communications services, the most mature category, grows only slightly. Device spending, despite reaching a record in dollar terms, is now one of the slower growing parts of the IT budget, a reflection of how the momentum in technology has moved decisively toward AI and cloud infrastructure.

The contrast in growth rates explains why the composition of IT spending is changing so quickly. When one segment grows at 32 percent while another grows at 9 percent, the faster growing category steadily claims a larger share of the total over time. This is exactly what is happening as data center and software spending outpace devices. For device makers, the challenge is to keep growing in a market that, while still enormous, is maturing and ceding the spotlight to AI infrastructure. Many are responding by building AI capabilities directly into their devices, hoping to spark a new upgrade cycle that could reignite faster growth in the years ahead.

The Device Spending Rollercoaster

Picking out a handful of milestone years captures the device market's rollercoaster ride in a single view. In 2012, spending stood at about $628 billion as smartphones and tablets were still spreading. It peaked at roughly $685 billion in 2014 before the mid decade slump dragged it down to a trough near $600 billion in 2016. The pandemic then propelled spending to a dramatic high of around $808 billion in 2021, before a correction and recovery carried it to a projected record of about $856 billion in 2026. These milestones trace a market that has repeatedly defied predictions of decline, finding new sources of growth even after each downturn.

What links these milestones is the way external forces have repeatedly reshaped device demand. The early growth was driven by the smartphone revolution, the mid decade slump by PC saturation and a strong dollar, the 2021 spike by the pandemic, and the latest record by rising prices and the dawn of AI enabled hardware. In each case, a powerful external catalyst pushed the market sharply in one direction. This sensitivity to outside events makes device spending an unusually good barometer of the broader technology and economic climate, reflecting everything from consumer confidence to global supply chains and the arrival of transformative new technologies.

A Shrinking Slice of IT Budgets

Even as device spending climbs to new records in dollar terms, its share of the total IT budget has been slipping. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic device boom, hardware accounted for roughly 19 percent of all worldwide IT spending. By 2026, despite the record absolute figure, that share is forecast to fall to under 14 percent. The reason is not weakness in devices but extraordinary strength elsewhere, as spending on data center systems, software and services grows far faster. The broader economic backdrop shaping these technology budgets is explored in our global economy overview.

This shrinking slice tells a deeper story about the evolution of technology. The device, once the centrepiece of the digital economy and the gateway through which people accessed computing, is increasingly becoming a commodity endpoint for services and intelligence that live in the cloud. The value, and therefore the spending, is migrating up the stack from hardware toward software, services and AI. Devices remain indispensable, and the world will keep spending more on them each year, but they now compete for a smaller share of a much larger and faster growing technology budget. The shift mirrors the broader move toward digital services tracked in our retail e-commerce sales growth worldwide analysis.

Average Growth Rate by Era

Averaging the annual growth rates within each five year era highlights how the pace of the device market has changed over time. In the 2012 to 2016 era, average annual growth was roughly flat, even slightly negative, as the mid decade slump offset the early gains. The 2017 to 2021 era saw average growth jump to around 6 percent a year, lifted enormously by the pandemic surge at its close. The most recent 2022 to 2026 era settles back to more moderate average growth of about 1 to 2 percent a year, as the post pandemic correction drags down the average despite the strong recent recovery. The pattern shows a market whose growth has come in concentrated bursts rather than a steady climb.

This era based view of growth reinforces the central theme of the device market: volatility around a slowly rising baseline. The bursts of strong growth have always been tied to specific catalysts, the smartphone boom, the pandemic, and now potentially AI enabled devices, rather than to steady underlying expansion. For anyone trying to forecast where device spending heads next, the lesson is that the market rarely moves in a straight line, and that the next major move, up or down, is likely to be driven by a new external force rather than by the gradual grind of replacement demand alone. Whether AI proves to be that next great catalyst is the defining question for the years ahead.

Taken together, the device spending figures describe a market that is huge, resilient and surprisingly volatile. From about $628 billion in 2012 to a projected record near $856 billion in 2026, worldwide spending on PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers has weathered a mid decade slump, a pandemic boom and bust, and the rise of AI, ending the period larger than ever even as its share of total IT spending shrinks. The cumulative total of more than $10 trillion underlines how central these devices remain to modern life, while the explosive growth of data center spending alongside them signals where the next wave of technology investment is heading. The key questions ahead are whether AI enabled devices can spark a fresh upgrade cycle, how rising component costs affect prices and demand, and whether the personal device can hold its ground as the centre of gravity in technology shifts toward the cloud. What is certain is that the device market, having survived a decade of slumps, booms and disruptions to reach record spending, has proved far more durable than the periodic predictions of its decline would suggest. Apple's own pivotal role in this market is detailed in our Apple total net sales analysis, and its regional sales in our quarterly Apple revenue by region breakdown.

Frequently Asked Questions: Global Device Spending