IT distributor revenues grow 2.3% YoY in Q4

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Distributor Revenues grew 2.3% year-over-year, landing at $21.4 B, but this solid end to the year was not enough to outweigh weaker sales in earlier quarters, and 2024 ended down 1.1% year-over-year according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) North America Distribution Tracker (NADT). Product groups driving growth in Q4 included Software coming in at 9.7% year-over-year and Personal Computing which beat expectations and grew an impressive 16.2% year-over-year. The performance in these categories was enough to offset a year-over-year decline in Services of -5.5% and the anticipated decline in Network Infrastructure of -6.0% year-over-year.

“Software has seen growth steadily rise from 8.4% in Q2 to 9.7% in the second half of 2024 while other categories have seen larger shifts related to both post-pandemic as well as new market dynamics,” said Ruth Flynn, Research Vice President, IDC Tracker & Data Products. “PC growth surged in Q4 fueled by rising AI spending, commercial replacements, and ahead of potentially rising taxes while revenue from Network Infrastructure continued to decline from a 2023 surge and subsequent order reductions while new inventory is deployed.”

Personal Computing returned to normal distributor revenue levels in 2024 after a significant contraction in 2023. The $3.75B in sales recorded in Q4 continues to be fueled by AI PC configurations, which grew 141% year-over-year. The Top 5 Brands all enjoyed double digit year-over-year growth with HP Inc. leading the pack at 25.8%.

Software sales in Q4 came in at $4.55B. The two largest categories, Security Software and Storage Software, which account for over 40% of software sales, grew at 6.2% and 13.4% year-over-year, respectively. But it was the third largest software category, Physical and Virtual Computing Software, that really exhibited impressive growth in the fourth quarter coming in at 82.1% year-over-year. All of the top three vendors in this market enjoyed growth, but VMware and Citrix really stood out with 350% and 218% year-over-year growth respectively.

IDC’s North America Weekly Distribution Tracker and North America Monthly Distribution Tracker are built on the exclusive partnership between IDC and the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) and provides the industry’s most comprehensive view of technology distribution data and market trends in the U.S. and Canada. The data in these Trackers is actual sales data collected weekly from sales receipts across the largest distributors in North America for more than 1,000 brands over several years. This data is mapped to IDC’s taxonomy with over 200 categories organized into 13 distinct product groups with detailed product attributes across categories. IDC