Technology distributor revenue remained unchanged at $19.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24), according to IDC North America Distribution Tracker (NADT).
This stability came despite a significant drop in Network Infrastructure sales, which fell from record highs in 2023 after previous backlogs were cleared. This decline was balanced by nearly 10 percent year-over-year growth in both Personal Computing and Software sales.
Ruth Flynn, IDC’s research vice president for Data & Analytics, noted, “Market transitions to AI-centric processes will place less emphasis on network infrastructure build-out and more on developing endpoint, software, and storage cornerstones, with associated growth also expected in support frameworks and services.”
The Personal Computing product group reclaimed the top spot for sales, reaching $3.9 billion in 2Q24, with a robust 9.9 percent year-over-year increase. AI PCs, which generated 17.8 percent of second-quarter PC revenues, saw a 33 percent increase compared to 1Q24. Apple and Microsoft led the AI PC adoption, with 75 percent and 32 percent of their respective revenue mixes coming from AI PCs. However, Lenovo and HP remained the leaders in total PC sales, despite having lower AI PC product mixes for the quarter. AI PCs with Neural Processing Unit (NPU) technologies are expected to see continued growth in the coming quarters.
In the Software segment, most major categories experienced growth, with Software-Defined Storage Controller Software seeing a 31 percent year-over-year increase, driven by AI support and hyperconverged infrastructure products. Nutanix led this category with a 45 percent growth, followed by NetApp at 24 percent. Network Security Software grew by 30 percent, with Palo Alto Networks driving 54 percent of that growth through its cloud access point protection products. The software segment overall achieved $3.9 billion in sales, marking a 9.6 percent gain.
Increased demand for processing-centric workloads to support AI platforms also stimulated growth in Server and Storage products. Enterprise Infrastructure saw a 3.7 percent growth, driven by SSDs, Servers, and Storage Systems utilizing both flash and HDD solutions. This trend is expected to continue as infrastructure evolves to accommodate AI-intensive workloads.
