In Gartner's analysis, the telecom equipment market is poised for the strongest growth this year, driven in part by purchases of mobile devices, with global spending in that sector forecast to grow 9.1 percent, to $465 billion. Like Forrester, Gartner foresees enterprise software sales growth accelerating while computing hardware spending growth slows somewhat.

Gartner put enterprise software sales growth for 2011 at 7.5 percent, rising to $253.7 billion dollars. That compares with 6.1 percent growth in 2010. Hardware growth will slow from an 8.9 percent increase in 2010 to a 7.5 percent increase this year, reaching $391.3 billion, according to Gartner.

However, Gartner, like Forrester, sounded a note of caution about 2011. "While the global economic situation is improving, the recovery is slow and hampered by a sluggish growth outlook in the important mature economies of the U.S. and Western Europe," said Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement issued Thursday.

As always, IT spending -- and general confidence in the technology sector -- are linked to the macroeconomy. On Friday, for example, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 13 percent, closing at 2696, as data showed U.S. jobs growth last month was not as strong as expected.