Monday Morning Impact – November 7

Worldwide PC Shipments Decline

PC shipments across the globe are down, according to competing research by IDC and Gartner.

According to Needham, Massachusetts-based IDC, shipments dropped 15% in Q3, corresponding to global shipments totaling 74.3 million units. However, IDC says shipment volumes remain well above pre-pandemic levels when PC volumes were largely driven by commercial refreshes due to the looming end of support for Windows 7.

“Consumer demand has remained muted though promotional activity from the likes of Apple and other players has helped soften the fall and reduce channel inventory by a couple weeks across the board,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. “Supply has also reacted to the new lows by reducing orders with Apple being the only exception as their third quarter supply increased to make up for lost orders stemming from the lockdowns in China during the second quarter.”

Meanwhile, Gartner pegs the Q3 decline at 19.5%, totaling 68 million units. This is the steepest market decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s and the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline.

“This quarter’s results could mark a historic slowdown for the PC market,” said Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner. “While supply chain disruptions have finally eased, high inventory has now become a major issue given weak PC demand in both the consumer and business markets. Back to school sales ended with disappointing results despite massive promotions and price drops, due to a lack of need as many consumers had purchased new PCs in the last two years. On the business side, geopolitical and economic uncertainties led to more selective IT spending, and PCs were not at the top of the priority list.”

Gartner says the U.S. PC market declined 17.3% in the third quarter of 2022, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment decline. Slowed laptop sales drove the overall U.S. market down, but the desktop market showed modest growth driven by pent up demand among businesses as well as public sector purchases.

“Inflation is the biggest concern in the U.S. market, but smaller businesses are showing relative optimism about macroeconomic conditions,” said Kitagawa. “While laptop demand among large enterprises sharply decreased in the third quarter of 2022, small and midsize businesses did not show as steep of a drop.”

The EMEA PC market decreased 26.4% year-over-year in the third quarter, reaching 17 million units – the steepest decline among all regions. This is the third negative quarter for the EMEA PC market following a boom at the start of the pandemic.

Excluding Japan, the Asia Pacific market declined 16.6% year-over-year, largely due to slowed shipments in China.

Further details will be available to Gartner clients through a report entitled, “PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region.”

Channel Impact^®
The data demonstrate to channel partners the continuing need to differentiate their services with advanced technologies.

CompTIA: Tech Employment Continues on Growth Path

Technology-related employment continues to defy expectations of cutbacks, hiring freezes and layoffs, according to the latest “Tech Jobs Report” released by CompTIA, an industry trade association based in suburban Chicago.

CompTIA’s analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report reveals that tech sector companies added a net 4,800 workers, extending the job gains streak to 22 consecutive months. Year-to-date tech industry employment is tracking 22% ahead of 2021. Companies across the economy added an estimated 84,000 tech workers for the month.

“Despite the prevailing sentiment of a slowing economy, the gains in tech employment say otherwise,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “We can infer from the data that aggregate demand for tech talent remains strong enough to offset any pockets of weakness.”

The tech unemployment rate edged down slightly to 2.1% signaling a still very tight labor market. Employer job postings for technology positions totaled 302,370 for the month, a decrease of -12% versus the previous month.

The employer job posting data again confirms the expansive footprint of technology across the economy with hiring activity spanning every sector, including professional, scientific and technical services (46,263), finance and insurance (39,619) and manufacturing (38,386).

Hiring activity remains widely dispersed on a geographic basis, as well. As expected, the metro markets of New York City (19,993), Washington (16,985), Dallas (12,279), Chicago (10,941) and Los Angeles (10,848) has the largest totals of tech jobs postings. But markets such as Wichita (KS), Little Rock (AR), Lansing (MI), and Dover (DE) saw notable jumps in postings from August to September, reflecting the ongoing shifts in remote work.

Channel Impact^®
Despite the ongoing news around layoffs, these statistics bear at least a somewhat more positive picture.

Palo Alto Networks Expands Partner Program to Accelerate Security

Palo Alto Networks has announced the expansion of its NextWave Program to help partners more rapidly contain and remediate cyberthreats through incident response (IR) services powered by the company’s Cortex XDR product.

The NextWave Program now provides new tools, training, and resources to address customer demand for IR services and aligns with the expansion of the Palo Alto Networks Cortex MSSP ecosystem, which the company says grew 146% year over year.

“The 2022 Unit 42 Incident Response Report found that in 44% of cases, organizations did not have an extended detection and response (XDR) security solution, or it was not fully deployed on the initially impacted systems.” said Tom Barsi, vice president, WW Cortex Ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks. “We are investing in our MSSP partner ecosystem more than ever before with the expansion of the NextWave Partner Program to encompass Threat Response. Partners that achieve this designation are highly skilled and have met stringent requirements with demonstrated deep experience in delivering Threat Hunting and IR services leveraging Cortex XDR. They are able to support customers through Incident Response, during their greatest time of need.”

The Palo Alto Networks NextWave Program for Threat Response provides partners with IR XDR technology utilizing proactive and reactive use cases and data; technical and deployment support 24/7 for online access to XDR tenants; and expanded routes to market for proactive services.

Channel Impact^®
The roll-out provides another resource for MSSPs, who are increasingly called upon by companies in need of a strengthened security posture.