2009 To Be Weak Year In Server Space: Gartner

Worldwide server revenue declined 24 percent in the first quarter of 2009, and shipments dropped 24.2 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2008, according to Gartner. These were the most significant declines the server industry has experienced on a year-on-year basis.

“The significant decline that occurred in the fourth quarter of last year has extended into the beginning of this year,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. “While this was not unexpected, the severity of the decline was greater than predicted on a worldwide level.”

“The ongoing weakness of the global economy affected all server segments. x86-based servers fell 23.9 percent in units and 27.1 percent in revenues. UNIX servers also were impacted in quarterly results with drops of 31.3 percent in units and 20.4 percent in vendor revenues,” Hewitt said.

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The server market was negatively impacted in all geographic regions. Asia/Pacific felt the least downward pressure in terms of revenue and units with a 13.5 percent and 12.7 percent declines, respectively. Both the US and Western Europe had shipment declines of almost 27 percent for the quarter. In server vendor revenues, the US dropped 21.2 percent and Western Europe fell 33.8 percent.

Of the top five global vendors, IBM, HP, Dell, Sun and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens all had double-digit revenue declines for the first quarter of 2009. IBM continued to lead the worldwide server market based on revenue – the company posted just over $3 billion in server revenue, and its market share reached 30.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009. This share was up 1.4 percent year-on-year. While IBM retained the Number 1 position, it sustained a 20.4 percent revenue decline, with all of its server brands posting year-on-year decreases.

Of the top five vendors in server shipments worldwide, all posted double-digit decreases in units for the first quarter. Hewlett-Packard remained the worldwide leader for the first quarter of 2009 in spite of a shipment decline of 22.3 percent for the year. All of HP’s server brands had a year-on-year decline for the period.

The weak economic environment also impacted overall x86 server demand as x86 server shipments fell by 23.9 percent and revenue dropped by 27.1 percent for the first quarter of 2009. The least impacted server segment was x86 blade severs, which fell 20.6 percent in units and 19.5 percent in vendor revenue for the first quarter. All blade server shipments declined 19.1 percent, and revenue decreased 13.8 percent.

“The outlook for 2009 suggests that it will be a weak year on the whole in the server space, and that from a yearly standpoint, the global server market is unlikely to return to a position of growth until 2010,” said Hewitt.