IT Shipment Value Through Distribution Up 7.8 Percent In Q1

According to a new study by Raymond James & Associates, IT shipments through U.S. distribution channels rose an estimated 7.8 percent over the same period of last year.

While good news, the growth rate was not as high for the quarter as it has been in the past. Raymond James said U.S. IT channel growth grew 14.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 2009, and 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 2007. The economic downturn caused IT shipments through U.S. channels to crash by 15.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 2008.

However, the growth comparison for the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2010 can be misleading, as growth in the first quarter of 2010 came at the start of the economic recovery.

U.S. IT sales through distribution in the first quarter of 2011 did better than in Europe, where sales grew only 3.5 percent, Raymond James estimated. However, distribution sales in Asia grew a strong 17.1 percent, the organization estimated.

On the reseller side, Raymond James estimated sales of the largest corporate, government, and SMB-focused resellers to grow 11.8 percent in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period last year.

This is much stronger than Raymond James' estimated gain for distributors, the organization wrote. "We attribute the discrepancy to mix (strong enterprise sales for resellers, weak consumer shipments for distributors), share gains by large VARs, and the fact that resellers fell into a deeper hole during the spending downturn," Raymond James wrote.

U.S. commercial enterprise and SMB sales through the reseller market grew 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2011 over 2010, Raymond James wrote.