Credit Suisse initiated coverage on the US IT hardware sector with an "overweight" rating, saying it had more room to grow to accommodate trends like virtualization and cloud computing, and the explosive growth in smart devices."The acceleration of virtualization, which drives a move toward the private and public clouds, ... of mobile computing ... will cause unprecedented data growth and increased demand for IT infrastructure," the brokerage said in a note to clients dated March 16.
It expects demand for the $1.2 trillion IT hardware and IT services market to grow 4 percent per annum through 2015.
Smartphone makers will see a 14 percent growth through 2015, compared with a decline of 6 percent in the PC industry, Credit Suisse said.
Credit Suisse rated Apple Inc's stock an "outperform," saying iPhone rivals have not yet gained a competitive edge.
The iPad is looking to dominate a $120 billion addressable market with its "aggressive pricing, time to market advantage and a software edge," it said.
