Vendor revenue in the worldwide server market grew 7.5% year over year to $25.4 billion during the fourth quarter of 2019 (4Q19), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. Worldwide server shipments grew 14.0% year over year to just over 3.4 million units in 4Q19.
“While the server market recaptured growth during the fourth quarter, it was a bit of a mixed bag as robust hyperscaler demand benefited the ODM Direct vendor group, which combined with strong non-x86 server purchases to drive the broader market,” said Sebastian Lagana, research manager, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC. “While the OEM x86 market was tepid, it’s worth noting that 4Q18 was one of the most challenging comparison periods in history, during which many OEMs generated double-digit growth and large revenue bases.”
Some highlights:
- The number one position in the worldwide server market in 4Q19 was shared by the combined HPE/New H3C Group and Dell Technologies with revenue shares of 16.3% and 15.7% respectively.
- HPE/New H3C Group revenues were down 3.4% year over year while Dell Technologies declined 9.9%.
- The third ranking server supplier during the quarter was IBM, generating 9.1% revenue share on growth of 17.6%.
- Inspur/Inspur Power Systems was fourth with 6.8% revenue share and year-over-year growth of 12.1%.
- Lenovo and Huawei were statistically tied* for the fifth position in the market with market shares of 5.6% and 5.1% respectively.
- Lenovo’s revenues were down 2.6% year over year while Huawei grew its revenues 1.8% in 4Q19.
- The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 25.5% of total revenue and was up 37.9% year over year to $6.47 billion.
- Dell Technologies led the worldwide server market in terms of unit shipments, accounting for 16.1% of all units shipped during the quarter.