Posted by Framingham, US: The vendor revenue in the global server market has increased 4.4% year over year (Y-o-Y) to $19.8 billion during the first quarter of 2019 (Q1, 2019), according to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. While, the worldwide server shipments fell 5.1% Y-o-Y to just under 2.6 million units in Q1, 2019.
The overall server market slowed in Q1, 2019 after experiencing six consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth although pockets of robust growth remain. Volume server revenue increased by 4.2% to $16.7 billion, while mid-range server revenue grew 30.2% to $2.1 billion. High-end systems contracted steeply for a second consecutive quarter, declining 24.7% Y-o-Y to $976 million.
“Demand from both enterprise buyers and hyperscale companies purchasing through ODMs was less voracious than in previous quarters; coupled with a difficult compare period from a year ago, this impacted the pace of market growth during the first quarter,” said Sebastian Lagana, Research Manager – Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies, IDC.
“This was most evident in declining unit shipments during the quarter, although year-to-year average selling price (ASP) increases supported revenue growth for many vendors. As long as demand for richly configured servers supports further ASP growth, the market will offset slight declines in unit volume,” added Lagana.
Overall Server Market Standings, by Company
The number 1 position in the worldwide server market during 1Q, 2019 was Dell Technologies with 20.2% revenue share, followed by HPE/New H3C Group, with 17.8% revenue share. Dell Technologies grew revenues 8.9% Y-o-Y while HPE/New H3C Group increased revenues 0.2%.
Tied for the number 3 position during the quarter were Inspur/Inspur Power Systems, Lenovo, and Cisco, generating 6.2%, 5.7%, and 5.3% share total server revenues, respectively.
Inspur/Inspur Power Systems increased its revenue 36.4% Y-o-Y; Lenovo grew its revenue 3.9% Y-o-Y; and Cisco increased its revenue 6.9% Y-o-Y. The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 23.0% of total market revenue and declined -1.0% Y-o-Y to $4.55 billion.