It is too early to gauge exactly how severe impact will be, but the magnitude of the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and power outages will no doubt result in some issues, IDC senior analyst, Trevor Clarke, said,

"What is clear is that there will be some impact on supply chains and that this will start to be felt in A/NZ over the next few months, although it would be prudent to monitor the situation closely as it is quickly evolving," Clarke said.

Australia and New Zealand has had its own share of natural disasters, such as the Queensland floods at the beginning of 2011 and the Christchurch earthquake of February. This has affected user spending on ICT, but the bigger challenge lies on the vendor side in light of the events in Japan, Clarke said.

"There are a lot of big name Japanese brands that are potentially going to suffer as a result of these tragic events, but our initial research shows many have also come through with minor damage to production facilities and should continue to provide product and components to their supply chains," he said. "These brands straddle a wide range of ICT markets in A/NZ and we expect businesses and consumers to continue to have plenty of buying options."

The analyst hopes a more complete picture of the issues will emerge by mid-April, 2011 and expressed its condolences and support to all those affected by the earthquake.