If you haven’t tuned in to watch the CONTEXT IT Industry Forum webinars, make it a new year’s resolution. Every Wednesday, we take a look at the country, category and vendor trends of the past week, month and quarter. Our expert analysts from across the globe share the insight you need to make better decisions for your channel business.

Among our highlights for February 2025 are strong gaming monitor sales, a slow start to the year for UK distributors, and new ESG products from CONTEXT in the pipeline. Here are our top picks for the month: 

UK off to a slow start as distribution sales growth drops 1% in January

Business and consumer confidence have taken a tumble in the UK so far this year, thanks to persistently high interest rates and cost of living, and new employment taxes. Yet in spite of this gloomy picture, week 5 saw blockbuster channel revenues of £330m. Since Q4 2022, only six weeks have boasted higher revenues. On the back of 1.2% year-on-year (YoY) revenue growth in 2024, it would seem like the UK channel is back on track. But in fact, sales slumped -1% annually in January. 

Adding to the nervousness is the significant -13% YoY decline in sales growth in January for corporate resellers. Small and medium resellers (SMR) fared slightly better in the month, posting growth of 5% YoY after a 2024 full-year decline of the same amount. Given that the business channel makes up two-thirds to three quarters of all distribution revenues, these are figures we’ll keep a close eye on as the months progress.

CONTEXT readies new ESG tracking services

CONTEXT is developing two new products which will help channel businesses to better track and manage their ESG compliance. Due for launch in Q2 is a Product ESG Database which will incorporate information on Ecolabels, product carbon footprint and energy consumption data in a single platform. A second offering set to launch in Q4 will track sales of vendor-certified refurbished products, especially notebooks. 

As an example of the insight these two services will offer, we can already see that while UK notebook revenue sales increased 8.3% YoY in 2024, carbon footprint grew by just 4.8% in the period. Emissions were highly concentrated in three vendors. We can also see that refurbished sales activity currently does not go through distribution. Just 0.4% of distribution sales were refurbished products in 2024. However, we expect that to change once our product tracking service launches.

Gaming monitor sales hold up despite seasonal slow down

The start of a new year is usually a subdued period for gaming sales, but the slowdown has not been as pronounced this year. In fact, four categories – mice, monitors, keyboards and headsets – all sat above the index revenue trend line in January, indicating that sales were higher than the 2023 monthly revenue average. Graphics card sales didn’t perform as expected despite a major NVIDIA launch at the start of the year, but this is because supply has not been able to meet demand. However, gaming monitors sold well in 2024 and continue to do so at the start of this year. It seems that buyers who can’t purchase graphics cards or new PCs are putting their budget towards new monitors. Sales of 32 and 34-inch monitors with curved, newer HD panels, are performing particularly well, and we expect that to continue.

AI PC market share holds steady at 40%

The share of AI-capable PCs across Europe remained fairly consistent in week 6 and week 7, at around 40%, according to CONTEXT’s AI PC Tracker. This refers to PCs fitted with chips that feature a neural processing unit (NPU), irrespective of TOPS performance. The share of these PCs branded Copilot+ also held pretty steady during the period, at around 6% of the total. In terms of chipmakers, Qualcomm remained in the lead, with a slightly smaller share of 50% in week 7. AMD’s share rose slightly to 26% with Intel on 23%. Most of these machines are sold through retail channels, which will be the case for at least the next few months before an expected pickup in the commercial segment. New data from Argentina shows the share of AI PCs there is far lower than in Europe, at just 7% in week 7.

For more on these and other IT channel trends, tune into CONTEXT’s weekly IT Industry Forum webinars. Register here.