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Gartner Says Worldwide Server Shipments Grew 4 Percent While Revenue Declined 5 Percent in Third Quarter of 2008

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Press release

 

STAMFORD, Conn., December 1, 2008 - Worldwide server shipments for the third quarter of 2008 increased 4.4 percent over the same quarter last year, while worldwide server revenue for the same period declined 5.4 percent according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide server revenues totaled $12.7 billion for the quarter, as worldwide servers shipments reached 2.3 million units.

"Server shipments grew in the third quarter, but the specter of constrained economies and tightened credit was felt in the revenue area," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "What we've seen is larger system purchases in the Unix area put in check. At the same time x86 servers were able to maintain some shipment momentum, but lower overall average x86 server selling prices resulted in a drop in revenue in the quarter for this server type as well."

"Evidence of a challenged RISC-Itanium Unix server area appeared in a fall of 16.1 percent in shipments and 10.8 percent in revenue," Mr. Hewitt said.

The top 5 vendors all experienced a decline in revenue in the third quarter of 2008 (see Table 1). IBM held the revenue lead in the worldwide server market for the quarter. This was fueled by sales of both the System p and System z brands. IBM's overall revenue share lead over second-place Hewlett-Packard was 0.5 percent for the quarter. 

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 3Q08 (U.S. Dollars)

Company

3Q08

Revenue

3Q08 Market Share (%)

3Q07

Revenue

3Q07 Market Share (%)

3Q07-3Q08 Growth (%)

IBM

3,856,826,095

30.3

4,026,746,389

30.0

-4.2

Hewlett-Packard

3,793,197,226

29.8

3,946,402,502

29.4

-3.9

Dell Inc.

1,500,603,160

11.8

1,582,838,318

11.8

-5.2

Sun Microsystems

1,158,251,731

9.1

1,341,466,786

10.0

-13.7

Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens

616,753,331

4.8

665,460,127

5.0

-7.3

Other Vendors

1,791,514,236

14.1

1,878,940,160

14.0

-4.7

Total

12,717,145,779

100.0

13,441,854,282

100.0

-5.4

Source: Gartner (December 2008)

In server shipments, HP grew 11.4 percent compared to the third quarter of 2007, and retained its worldwide server shipment lead. The share gap between it and second-place Dell increased 2.1 percentage points for the quarter (see Table 2). HP finished the quarter with its shipment market share reaching 31.2 percent for the period. HP's growth came from its ProLiant brands. HP pushed its blade server shipment share upward 3.9 percent to reach a total of 46.4 percent for the quarter.

Dell and Sun both posted shipment growth for the quarter at 3.3 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. IBM's server shipments fell 3.5 percent and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens' server shipments dropped 3.8 percent for the quarter.

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipment Estimates, 3Q08 (Units)

Company

3Q08

Shipments

3Q08 Market Share (%)

3Q07

Shipments

3Q07 Market Share (%)

3Q07-3Q08 Growth (%)

Hewlett-Packard

724,024

31.2

649,958

29.3

11.4

Dell Inc.

500,470

21.6

484,650

21.8

3.3

IBM

308,524

13.3

319,674

14.4

-3.5

Sun Microsystems

81,522

3.5

79,237

3.6

2.9

Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens

73,578

3.2

76,506

3.4

-3.8

Other Vendors

629,863

27.2

610.704

27.5

3.1

Total

2,317,981

100.0

2,220,729

100.0

4.4

Source: Gartner (December 2008)