IV. Hardware Spending
Hardware Spending Lagging Software and Services
- Four per cent growth in hardware spending is consistent with the do-more-with-less mantra.
- The slowing growth rate also reflects the downward trend in price points.
PCs, Notebooks
- 42 per cent plan to increase spending on PCs and notebooks.
- PC/notebook spending at is up three per cent, suggesting a normal PC replacement cycle.
- 76 per cent cited aging PCs as the main driver of PC spending, more than any specific feature or requirement.
- The requirement to replace aging desktops with notebooks was weaker than expected but still strong given notebook growth is outpacing desktop growth.
Networks, Servers, Storage
- Servers and storage hardware spending growth is expected to continue at a healthy rate.
- Adoption of virtualization offerings (running multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions, particularly in the x86 marketplace) may yield improved utilization, thereby restraining raw server shipment growth.