Gartner: Server Shipments Fell Slightly in Q1

A new report from market research firm Gartner points to signs of a struggling server market in the first quarter of this year. Market leaders HP and IBM both saw their sales decline; only Dell managed to increase its shipments during the period.

Computerworld’s Mikael Ricknäs reported, “Worldwide server shipments declined 0.7% from last year to 2.3 million units, while revenue declined 5% to $11.8 billion, according to market research company Gartner. Shipments and revenue were up in the U.S. and Asia/Pacific, but not enough to offset the declines in other regions.”

In a press release, Gartner’s Adrian O’Connell stated, “Following a challenging 2012, 2013 started in very much the same way. Budgets are restricted and server infrastructure spending is clearly not the highest priority for many organizations.”

ZDNet’s Sam Shead noted, “The top five server vendors all experienced revenue declines in the first quarter of the year — except for Dell, which grew 14.4 percent.”

Nathan Eddy with eWeek added, “IBM held the lead in the worldwide server market based on revenue. The company totaled just over $3 billion in server vendor revenue worldwide, with a total share of 25.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013…. In server shipments, HP remained the worldwide leader in the first quarter of 2013 in spite of a year-on-year shipment decline of 15.2 percent.”