Worldwide Server Revenue Grew 7.5 % in the 3rd Quarter of 2015, While Shipments Increased 9.2 %

In the third quarter of 2015, worldwide server shipments grew 9.2 percent from the third quarter of 2014, while vendor revenue increased 7.5 percent year over year.

"The third quarter of 2015 produced growth on a global level with mixed results by region," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "All regions showed growth in both shipments and vendor revenue, except for Eastern Europe, Japan and Latin America, which posted revenue declines of 5.8 percent, 11.7 percent and 24.2 percent, respectively, for the period. Currency exchange rates are one of the main reasons for the disparity in regional server market performance."

From the regional standpoint, Asia/Pacific grew the most in shipments, with a 23.8 percent increase. The region also posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 25.4 percent for the period.

HP continued to lead the worldwide server market based on revenue (see Table 1). The company posted just over $3.7 billion in server vendor revenue for a total market share of 27.3 percent for the third quarter of 2015.

All of the top five global vendors had revenue increases for the third quarter of 2015, except for IBM with a decline of 42.8 percent. IBM’s decline is due primarily to its sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo. Beyond that, IBM’s server revenue fell 3.1 percent for the RISC segment, but grew 15 percent for mainframes to post a 5.1 percent total growth in the third quarter for the server businesses that it retained.

Table 1
Worldwide Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 3Q15 (U.S. Dollars)

Company	3Q15 Revenue	3Q15 Market Share (%)	3Q14 Revenue	3Q14 Market Share (%)	3Q15-3Q14 Growth (%)
HP	3,682,417,477	27.3	3,374,559,864	26.9	9.1
Dell	2,419,231,403	17.9	2,219,989,943	17.7	9.0
IBM	1,327,761,197	9.8	2,322,409,499	18.5	-42.8
Lenovo	1,065,664,119	7.9	165,166,098	1.3	545.2
Cisco	885,600,000	6.6	783,760,000	6.2	13.0
Others	4,120,053,348	30.5	3,690,687,782	29.4	11.6
Total Market	13,500,727,544	100.0	12,556,573,186	100.0	7.5

Source: Gartner (December 2015)