Channel partners involved in the resale of PCs continued to report lower confidence in their business in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to IDC’s Channel Panel.
The Channel Panel results have shown a steady downward trend in partner confidence for the past few quarters across all technology segments as the economic environment worsens.
Partners said their business was decreasing more rapidly in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter.
Small partners were hit the hardest and said their business was decreasing more than large and mid-sized partners.
Mid-sized and large partners, which had previously been a bright spot in the segment, both struggled in the fourth quarter.
“Partner confidence across all technologies tracked in IDC’s Channel Panel fell sharply between Q3 and Q4 as the weakened economy continues to affect IT buying decisions,” said John Grady, research analyst for Hardware Channels at IDC.
“In the PC segment, even Apple partners, who had reported very strong results for the previous three quarters, were more bearish in Q4.”
The report found that Apple was again in the best position relative to other vendors overall, but large Apple partners were weak.
Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) saw similar results overall, but Dell was stronger among large partners and HP was stronger among mid-sized partners.
By John Kennedy
