At first the IDC report indicating that consumers spent more money on PC peripherals than they did on the purchase of the actual PC seemed rather bogus. However the term "peripheral" doesn't just apply to mice, keyboards, and a good speaker system. Rather, consumers dumped money into upgrades such as new graphics cards, hard drives, additional RAM and more.
Now that makes sense.
The report took a look at 2009's figures from the PC sector. As jobs and wallets took a big hit resulting from a tanked economy, the PC industry started to suffer as well--except for the PC accessories market which remained "vibrant and expanding." In fact, U.S. consumers spent at least $1.05 on PC accessories and peripherals for every $1 spent on a PC. This number was actually higher than 2008's numbers of $0.87 spent per dollar.
According David Daoud, research director, Personal Computing, the research behind the report was meant to reveal numbers generated from the accessories market, a factor that had not been adequately tracked in the past.
"With the trend of a multi-PC per user environment, the accessories market will play a growing role in insuring seamless integration of all the devices in businesses and households," he said. "The need for solutions to enhance user experience, improve productivity, and secure users' computing environment mean that the accessories market will continue to expand going forward."
The report also notes software as part of its overall peripheral classification, indicating that security and anti-spam software also propelled revenue in the accessories sector. U.S. small businesses--those with less than 100 employees--actually spent $2.7 billion on "Beyond-the-Box" products, accounting for nearly 24-percent of their computer shopping budget.
