Worldwide server shipments grew 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2014, while server revenue declined 4.1 percent year over year, according to Gartner, Inc.

"The first quarter of 2014 produced relatively weak growth on a global level with a variation in results by region," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. All regions showed a decline in either shipments or revenue except for Asia/Pacific. Asia/Pacific posted a 3.3 percent increase in revenue and an 18 percent increase in shipments. In Japan shipments increased by 13.5 percent, but revenue declined by 9.2 percent while in Western Europe shipments declined by 4.8 percent and revenues rose 6.7 percent.”

"x86 servers managed to produce an increase with growth of 1.7 percent in units for the year and 2.8 percent in revenue," Mr. Hewitt said. "RISC/Itanium Unix servers fell globally in the first quarter of 2014 — down 19.9 percent in shipments and a 16.9 percent decline in vendor revenue compared with the same quarter last year. The 'other' CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed a decline of 37.6 percent year over year in terms of revenue."

HP led the worldwide server market in revenue terms in the first quarter of 2014 (see Table 1). The company ended the quarter with $2.9 billion in revenue, for a total share of 25.5 percent worldwide. This was down 2.3 percent compared with the same quarter in 2013.

Cisco was the only company in the top five that increased revenue in the first quarter of 2014, with growth of 37 percent compared with the same quarter in 2013.

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 1Q14 (U.S. Dollars)

Company

1Q14

Revenue

1Q14 Market Share (%)

1Q13

Revenue

1Q13 Market Share (%)

1Q14-1Q13 Growth (%)

HP

2,890,992,229

25.5

2,959,030,197

25.0

-2.3

IBM

2,244,631,789

19.8

3,016,060,031

25.5

-25.6

Dell

2,006,639,006

17.7

2,124,462,397

17.9

-5.5

Cisco

616,620,000

5.4

450,120,000

3.8

37.0

Fujitsu

573,761,398

5.1

583,238,840

4.9

-1.6

Others

 3,023,595,517

26.6

 2,702,999,615

22.8

11.9

Total

11,356,239,939

100.0

11,835,911,081

100.0

-4.1

Source: Gartner (May 2014)

In server shipments, HP remained the worldwide leader in the first quarter of 2014 (see Table 2) even though its shipments declined 7.9 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013. HP's worldwide server shipment share was 22.6 percent, followed by Dell with 19.7 percent of the market.

Of the top five vendors in server shipments worldwide, only Huawei and Inspur Electronics increased shipments in the first quarter of 2014, with growth of 61 percent and 288.7 percent, respectively. This is the first time Inspur Electronics made the top five in server shipments.

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 1Q14 (Units)

Company

1Q14

Shipments

1Q14 Market Share (%)

1Q13

Shipments

1Q13 Market Share (%)

1Q14-1Q13 Growth (%)

HP

534,652

22.6

580,563

24.9

-7.9

Dell

464,141

19.7

516,355

22.2

-10.1

IBM

166,311

7.0

230,446

9.9

-27.8

Huawei

85,919

3.6

53,380

2.3

61.0

Inspur Electronics

80,929

3.4

20,823

0.9

288.7

Others

 1,029,760

43.6

 927,536

39.8

11.0

Total

2,361,712

110.0

2,329,103

100.0

1.4

Source: Gartner (May 2014)

In terms of server form factors, x86 blade servers decreased 3.9 percent in shipments, but increased 5.2 percent in revenue for the quarter. The rack-optimized form factor climbed 1.4 percent in shipments and 1.7 percent in revenue in the first quarter of 2014.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), while server shipments continued to decline in the first quarter of 2014, revenues grew for the first time after 10 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines. Server shipments totaled 547,900 units, a decrease of 6.1 percent from the first quarter of 2013 (see Table 4). Server revenue totaled $3.0 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014 (see Table 3). 

“Although shipments contracted, the fact that the server market has finally shown revenue growth will be a welcome relief for server vendors,” said Adrian O’Connell, research director at Gartner. “The business environment in EMEA remains challenging, but the severe declines that we’ve witnessed in the non-x86 product segments have abated, at least in the first quarter of 2014.”

From a regional perspective, Eastern Europe experienced the largest revenue decline of 14.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014. Server revenues in the Middle East and Africa region declined 3.6 percent, but Western Europe achieved an increase of 6.7 percent in revenue.

In the first quarter of 2014, x86 server revenue increased 3.4 percent, while RISC/Itanium UNIX revenue declined 3.4 percent and the Other CPU segment revenue increased 8.6 percent. “Platform migrations continued to be a factor but the rate of these declines has slowed and the worst rates of decline may be behind us,” said Mr. O’Connell.

In the first quarter of 2014 HP extended its revenue share lead with 5.1 percent growth, despite experiencing a slight decline in server shipments. HP continued to improve its execution and also benefited from its competitors’ difficulties. Second-ranked IBM continued to suffer from cyclically weak product lifecycles, but its 8.7 percent decline was also compounded by additional weakness for its x86 business. Third-placed Dell suffered when compared to a particularly strong first quarter in 2013.

“After some challenges in 2013, vendors will be relieved to see 2014 get off to a relatively good start,” said Mr. O’Connell. “The demand environment is stabilizing but challenges remain. We expect users will continue to be conservative in their investments for some time and platform migrations will remain a challenging factor. We are likely to see revenue growth in 2014, but the reality is that the market is operating from a significantly lower level than it was prior to the downturn in 2008.”

Table 3
EMEA: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 1Q14 (U.S. Dollars)

Company

1Q14

Revenue

1Q14 Market Share (%)

1Q13

Revenue

1Q13 Market Share (%)

1Q14-1Q13 Growth (%)

HP

1,087,308,680

35.9

1,034,411,365

35.0

5.1

IBM

563,849,788

18.6

617,383,854

20.9

-8.7

Dell

469,835,750

15.5

517,483,000

17.5

-9.2

Fujitsu

269,870,145

8.9

228,659,643

7.7

18.0

Oracle

161,662,628

5.3

161,562,750

5.5

0.1

Others

479,079,418

15.8

397,854,330

13.5

20.4

Total

3,031,606,409

100.0

2,957,354,943

100.0

2.5

Source: Gartner (May 2014)

Table 4

EMEA: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 1Q14 (Units)

Company

1Q14

Shipments

1Q14 Market Share (%)

1Q13

Shipments

1Q13 Market Share (%)

1Q14-1Q13 Growth (%)

HP

214,672

 

39.2

218,610

37.5

-1.8

Dell

114,569

20.9

132,187

22.7

-13.3

IBM

38,997

7.1

56,184

9.6

-30.6

Fujitsu

35,490

6.5

36,463

6.2

-2.7

Cisco

15,365

2.8

14,691

2.5

4.6

Others

128,807

23.5

125,308

21.5

2.8

Total

547,901

100.0

583,443

100.0

-6.1