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Gartner Says Worldwide Server Shipment Market Grew Eight Percent in Second Quarter of 2015 

STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 26 -- In the second quarter of 2015, worldwide server shipments grew 8.0 percent year over year, while revenue increased 7.2 percent from the second quarter of 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.

"The second quarter year-over-year growth for 2015 slowed compared with the annual growth of the first quarter of the year," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "Currency exchange rate changes have started to show their impact by reducing relative spending power in regions like Western Europe. It is likely that in anticipation of further currency rate shifts that some organisations utilised their budgets earlier in the year rather than waiting until the third or fourth quarters, when their purchasing power may be further reduced by these relative currency changes.

"x86 server shipments increased 8.3 percent in the second quarter of 2015 and revenue grew 9 percent. RISC/Itanium Unix server shipments declined 18.7 percent globally for the period, while RISC/Itanium revenue declined 9.7 percent compared with the same quarter last year. The 'other' CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed an increase of 7.8 percent," Mr. Hewitt said.

From the regional standpoint, North America grew the most significantly in shipments with a 14.8 percent increase. The region also posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 14.7 percent for the period.

HP maintained its No. 1 ranking in the worldwide server market based on revenue with a 25.2 percent market share. Lenovo experienced the largest increase in the second quarter of 2015 with 526.5 percent growth in revenue. All of the top five global vendors had revenue increases for the second quarter of 2015 except IBM.

In server shipments, HP remained the worldwide leader in the second quarter of 2015 with a year-over-year shipment increase of 2.5 percent. HP's worldwide server shipment share was 21.7 percent, representing a 1.2 percent drop in share from the same quarter in 2014.

Of the top five vendors in server shipments worldwide, all produced shipment increases except for Dell. In EMEA, server shipments in the second quarter of 2015 declined 5.6 percent, while server revenue contracted by 2.3 percent, totalling $3.2 billion.

"Following a resurgent start to the year, the second quarter marked a return to the decline in server shipments and revenue in EMEA," said Adrian O'Connell, research director at Gartner. "Ongoing economic pressures and currency-driven price increases from the strong US dollar combined to offset the server replacement cycle in EMEA."

In shipment terms, market leader HP saw a marginal share decrease compared with the second quarter of 2014. Dell's share increased year over year as it continued to execute well in sales and marketing. It also benefitted from the shifting competitive dynamics as Lenovo acquired IBM's x86 server business. Third-place Lenovo's market share remained below that of IBM's x86 business a year ago.

In revenue terms, IBM held the third position in the second quarter of 2015. Although its overall revenue was down year over year due to the divestiture of its x86 servers to Lenovo, its non-x86 platforms increased 10 percent thanks to the mainframe refresh cycle.

"The currency fluctuations, which are reducing revenue, will pass, but the longer-term challenge of constrained enterprise spending is set to continue," said Mr. O'Connell. "The EMEA server market continues to be a sizable and important region for the vendors, but one in which vendors will have to maximise their efficiencies in order to thrive."

Additional information is available to subscribers of the Gartner Servers Quarterly Statistics Worldwide program. This program provides worldwide market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments. Segments include: region, vendor, vendor brand, sub brand, CPU type, CPU group, Max CPU, platform, price band, operating systems and distribution channels.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. The company delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 7,100 associates, including more than 1,500 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 90 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

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Source: Gartner

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