Emerging markets and hardware weakness hit IBM

IBM's latest results have suffered as a result of a decline in business in emerging markets, particularly China, as well as revealing that software rather than hardware is becoming the driving force of the industry.

Download this free guide

Emerging revenue opportunities for the channel with digital transformation

Digital transformation is a phrase that means many things to many people but for it to have any real relevance to the channel then it needs to mean a chance to make money. This guide will share some of the recent developments in the channel and the latest thoughts about the issue.

Start Download

• Corporate E-mail Address:

  You forgot to provide an Email Address.

  This email address doesn’t appear to be valid.

  This email address is already registered. Please login.

  You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

  Please provide a Corporate E-mail Address.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

By submitting your personal information, you agree that TechTarget and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers.

You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

Big Blue reported a 4% drop in its third quarter revenue down to $23.7bn with its hardware business decreasing by 17% year-on-year and services dipping by 3% with software only managing a 1% improvement and turnover from emerging markets contracted by 9%.

It was not all gloom and doom with cloud revenues climbing by 70% year-on-year, smarter planet increasing by 20% and business analytics up by 8% indicating that the software side of the business was in better shape than the hardware operations.

“In the third-quarter we continued to expand operating margins and increased earnings per share, but fell short on revenue. Where we had identified high growth opportunities and pursued them aggressively - cloud, mobile, business analytics, and security - we continued to show strong growth. This underscores our strategy to continuously transform the company to high value,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO.

“We are taking action to improve execution in our growth markets unit and in the elements of our hardware businesses that are under performing," she added.