IT product sales accelerated 13.1% growth in Q1 2022

Total IT product revenue reported by members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) approached $18.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22). The increase of 13.1% from a year ago was up significantly from 7.9% growth in all of 2021. The total was also the third highest overall behind only the fourth quarters of 2020 and 2021 as reported in the North America Weekly Distribution Tracker from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Despite the upward trend for the quarter, growth slowed from almost 18.9% in January to 8.1 in March, although each month still bested the 2021 growth rate, and the last week of March was the largest on record. AV, Security, and Consumer Electronics products led growth, each increasing more than 24% from the prior year. Imaging, Peripherals & Accessories, and Personal Computing were the slowest categories in 1Q22, growing in single digits from the prior year with growth slowing from pandemic recovery highs. Other categories all grew in double digits for the quarter.

“Despite continuing logistics, economic and political headwinds, as well as more difficult comparisons to last year, North American IT sales through tier 1 distribution remained strong in the first quarter,” said Ruth Flynn, director of operations, IDC Tracker & Data Products. “Throughout the pandemic consumers and businesses have been reminded of the value of tech investments and continue to prioritize IT purchases.”

On the hardware side, Lenovo moved into the top spot in 2022Q1 with close to 5% year-over-year growth, which was driven by Desktops, Workstations, Input/Output Devices, and PC Monitors. HP Inc. held the number 2 position despite a 6% year-over-year decline as a result of strong growth in Desktops, Workstations, PC Monitors, and Toner sales. And Cisco achieved 19% year-over-year growth for hardware sales driven by Ethernet Switches and this success on the hardware side lead to strong growth for the associated embedded software at 51% year over year.

In the software space, Autodesk had strong sales of their Engineering Applications software that lead to their overall 38% year-over-year growth. Palo Alto Networks as a leader in the Security Software space also had a strong quarter with 68% year-over-year growth. And IBM maintained its substantial share of overall software sales across a wide portfolio of markets, posting another quarter of positive year-over-year growth of 5%.

CT Bureau