Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/06/28/world_consumer_e_spending_gartner/

Punters to spend $2.1 trillion on e-tat this year

Way more money spent on digital plumbing than what's piped through

By Tony Smith

Posted in Personal Tech, 28th June 2011 14:36 GMT

World+Dog will spend $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) on digital information and entertainment products and services this year, and the crazy part is most of that money will be spent on connectivity.

According to market watcher Gartner, 2011 is shaping up like 2010, a year in which $2 trillion was spent by consumers on connectivity, kit and content.

Of that, over $1.2 trillion - 62 per cent of the total - was spent on "access and usage services" - essentially, broadband and mobile phone fees, though the figure also includes pay TV subscriptions and online gaming dues.

That muddies the content-pipeline divide slightly, but it's still clear the lion's share of consumer spending goes that it is not what goes into the pipe that makes the most money, it is controlling the plumbing.

Hardware accounted for less than half that figure: $560 billion, or 28 per cent of the total. All other forms of content - games, software, e-books, music, movies, mobile apps etc - amounted to $200 billion (ten per cent).

Total spending will reach $2.8 trillion in 2015, Gartner forecast. ®