IT Trends | Research
HP Keeps Lead in Server Market Despite Drop in Shipments
The worldwide server market grew a modest 4 percent in the second quarter of 2013 in terms of unit shipments but declined overall in revenue, according to a new report from market research firm Gartner.
All told, the industry shipped 2.46 million server units in the quarter, up from 2.37 million in the same period in 2012. Revenues fell 3.8 percent in the same period, ending at $12.35 billion.
HP, which fell 13.6 percent year over year, held on to the lead on shipments of 586,857 units. Its market share, however, dropped from 28.7 percent in 2Q 2012 to 23.9 percent in 2Q 2013, according to Gartner. HP had the second-highest server revenue of the quarter, at $3.09 billion.
Meanwhile, No. 2 Dell rose a modest 1.7 percent, reaching 551,000 units in the second quarter. It captured a 22.4 percent market share, down slightly from 2Q 2012's 22.9 percent share. Dell's server revenue for the quarter was $2.19 billion.
IBM came in a distant third at 209,833 units, down 8 percent from 2Q 2012. The company captured an 8.5 percent share of the server market in terms of unit shipments, down from 9.6 percent in the same period last year. However, IBM had the highest server revenues of the quarter, at $3.16 billion.
Cisco (77,729 units, $539 million server revenue) and Inspur Electronics (65,350 units) rounded out the top 5.
While Oracle did not make the top 5 in unit shipments, the company did come in fourth in server revenue for the quarter, at $7167.5 million.
"The global server market remains in a relatively weak state overall," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement released to coincide with the report. "The only real regional bright spot was Asia/Pacific with growth of 10 percent and 21.7 percent year on year in terms of revenue and shipments. Canada was the only other region that grew in both revenue and units (6.3 percent in revenue and 2.7 percent in units) while Latin America was close to flat for revenue but increased by 1 percent in terms of shipments. The U.S. also grew in terms of shipments by 1.9 percent year-on-year but declined in revenue by 5.1 percent."