Hardware and software products continue to dominate IT budgets in all verticals together accounting for 52-69% of IT spending, says Datamonitor.

Enterprises plan to increase their spending on software (2.4%) and services (1.7%) most markedly, with communications and consulting services likely to generate slightly above average growth (both 1.2%). Hardware spending, on the other hand, is forecast to decline very marginally (-0.2%).

Manufacturing is the most product-focused vertical, with 69% of IT spending going to software and hardware products and only 17% being spent on services and consulting.