Global server mkt revenue declines even as shipments go up

In the second quarter of 2012, worldwide server shipments grew 1.4 percent over the second quarter of 2011, while revenue declined 2.9 percent year-on-year, according to Gartner, Inc.

The slight unit growth for the second quarter of 2012 was contrasted by a decline in revenue on a global level with geographic variations continuing to be shown based on the ongoing differences in economic conditions by region, said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. In terms of revenue growth, only Asia/Pacific and the United States produced growth for the quarterall other regions declined.

x86 servers continued to grow but at a moderated rate with 1.8 percent growth in units for the quarter and a 5.6 percent increase in revenue. RISC/Itanium Unix servers continued to fall globally for the period a 14.9 percent decline in shipments and a 17.9 percent drop in vendor revenue compared to the same quarter last year. The other CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed a decline of 3.0 percent, Hewitt said.

From the regional standpoint, the United States grew the most significantly in shipments with a 8.4 percent increase. The United States also posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 6.5 percent for the period.

HP had the lead for the quarter in the worldwide server market based on revenue (see Table 1). The company posted worldwide server vendor revenue of $3.7 billion for a total share of 29.1 percent for the second quarter of 2012 HPs ProLiant brand was the most significant revenue contributor to its server product lines at 85.4 percent of its total server revenue for the second quarter.

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 2Q12 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (August 2012)

In server shipments, HP remained the worldwide leader in the second quarter of 2012 (see Table 2) in spite of a shipment decline of 5.6 percent from the second quarter of last year. This decline was driven primarily by drops in HPs ProLiant and Integrity brands.

In terms of x86-based server form factors, blade servers rose 1.1 percent in shipments and 7.3 percent in revenues for the quarter. The x86-based rack-optimized form factor fell 3.1 percent in shipments and climbed 3.1 percent in revenue for the second quarter of 2012.

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipment Estimates, 2Q12 (Units)

Source: Gartner (August 2012)

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