Worldwide server shipments for the third quarter of 2008 increased 4.4 per cent over the same quarter last year, even as global server revenue declined 5.4 per cent during the period. According to IT market researcher Gartner, Inc, global server revenues totalled $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 per cent in shipments and 10.8 per cent in revenue,'' 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 per cent for the quarter. Table 1 Worldwide server vendor revenue estimates, 3Q08 (US 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 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2007, and retained its worldwide server shipment lead. The share gap between it and second-place Dell rose 2.1 percentage points for the quarter (see Table 2). HP finished the quarter with its shipment market share reaching 31.2 per cent for the period. HP's growth came from its ProLiant brands. HP pushed its blade server shipment share upward 3.9 per cent to reach a total of 46.4 per cent for the quarter. Dell and Sun both posted shipment growth for the quarter at 3.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. IBM's server shipments fell 3.5 per cent and Fujitsu / Fujitsu Siemens' server shipments dropped 3.8 per cent 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)
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