HP spanks IBM and Dell in server market

According to market research outfit Gartner, worldwide server revenue totaled $13.4 billion for the quarter, as worldwide servers shipments reached just over 2.2 million units.

Within that, however, there was a bit of a reshuffle in the big three. In Q3 2006 IBM made over $1 billion more than HP from servers. This year, with IBM’s revenue declining by 8 per cent and HP’s jumping by 14 per cent, the gap is a quarter of what it was.

HP has also stolen volume market share from IBM, with its share jumping from 26.5 per cent to 29.3, while IBM’s dropped from 16.3 to 14.4. Dell’s market share has remained pretty static, with its growth being more or less in line with the whole industry.

Errol Rasit, senior analyst at Gartner, commented: "Underlying market dynamics such as growth from emerging markets, coupled with an ongoing demand for increased capacity, are stronger than any inhibitors such as server virtualization. Any implications from financial market instability were not visible in the server market in the third quarter."