According to IDC global IT spending will still "accelerate" come 2014, even after dipping to its slowest pace since the 2013 financial crisis-- 2013 spending is set to grow by 4% to reach $2.04 trillion. 

Such growth is down from the 5% of 2012, and is due to the slowdown in key emerging markets including China and Russia. Meanwhile W. Europe sees improvements, and 2013 growth is to reach 2% (1% excluding phones) thanks to economic momentum taking a turn for the better. If this gradual recovery continues 2014 W. European IT spending should grow by 3% through strong(er) commercial software sales. 

“The gradual turnaround in Europe is restoring business confidence, leading to a strengthening of our assumption that next year will be better than this year for most IT vendors," IDC says. 

On a global level mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) drive nearly 50% of 2013 industry growth-- excluding mobiles 2013 IT spending will only grow by 2.6% at constant currency, as enterprise IT spending remains "tepid" since 2012, with weaker than expected spending on PCs, servers and storage.  Read more...

"Continued to shrink, declining faster than expected," Gartner remarks on the state of W. European Q3 2013 PC market-- shipments are down by -12.8% Y-o-Y to reach 11.9m units, with declines across all segments and regions. 

The reason for such results, of course, is the transition from PCs to tablets. Also to blame is careful inventory management, Windows 8.1 launch preparations and product transitions to Haswell and Bay Trail processors. 

Mobile PC shipments drop by -14.5% Y-o-Y, while desktops drop by -9.8%. The professional shipment sees shipments dropping by -8.3% and the consumer market by -17.1%. 

"Most PC vendors have shifted their investment from consumer PCs to tablets and hybrid form factors," the analyst continues. "The challenge they face is to protect their current PC market positions while competing in an aggressive and fast-moving alternative mobile device market. Without a solid position in the professional PC market, they will find it challenging to defend their positions and invest in non-PC devices."  Read more...

IDC seconds the Gartner findings as it reports the Q3 2013 EMEA PC shipment totals-- 21.4 million units with a -16% Y-o-Y decline, a lesser decline than the previous quarter thanks to improvements in commercial demand.

Consumer demand remains lukewarm, leading to cautious retail fulfillment and tighter inventory on the vendor side, while back-to-school demand only manages to bolster the educational segment.

The shipment numbers break down as follow-- portable PCs total 13.3m units with a -20.6% decline, desktops hit 8m with -7% decline.

"While it is too early to talk about recovery, the worse seems to have been reached in Q3 2013," IDC says. "However, the ramp-up is mainly in the commercial area, with September performance above expectations for most players. The end of Windows XP support in 2014 is driving IT departments to focus on hardware refresh, generating higher renewal in the corporate space."

Ingram Micro Europe president Gerhard Schultz splits the distributor into 5 geographical areas, each centered around "empowered country operations that operate close to the business."

Reportedly this change in leadership allows for the "fostering strong ties with the customers and vendors," as sole focus on specific business portfolios for "profitable growth."

The new Ingram Micro Europe setup is as follows: