Revenue reported in IDC’s North America Distribution Tracker (NADT) for the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) came in at $21,7-billion with a modest year-on-year decline of 1,8% ending the sustained growth that distribution experienced over the past two years.
The soft 4Q22 results were driven by a 23% decline in personal computing, but were largely offset by double-digit year-on-year growth in consumer electronics, network infrastructure, storage, and security with growth ranging from 12% to 30% in these categories.
For the full year 2022, NADT revenues reached $84,4-billion, an increase of 6,8% year on year. Personal computing and peripherals & accessories were each down more than 3% year on year while all other categories saw positive growth for the year.
“Tier 1 IT distributors continued to perform exceptionally well in a difficult environment despite the slowdown in personal computing and other categories in the fourth quarter,” says Ruth Flynn, research vice-president, IDC Tracker & Data Products. “While overall revenues were down slightly, the breadth of their portfolio and performance against the broader market remains strong.
“For example, NADT personal computing device revenues were about 1% ahead of projected PC revenues in Q4 and 5% ahead for the year, while overall NADT revenue growth was in-line with projected total IT spending growth in North America according to IDC’s Worldwide Black Book Forecast.”
Notebook sales, which typically account for two-thirds of personal computing device sales, declined 29% year on year and 30% compared to the previous quarter, the largest product decline in NADT Personal Computing revenue since 2018. In contrast, NADT revenues in the enterprise space saw strong double-digit growth (with a large boost from Seagate HDDs with over 500% growth in Q4 2022).