Gartner Says Worldwide Server Revenue Grew 16 Percent in the Third Quarter of 2017; Shipments Grew 5.1 Percent

In the third quarter of 2017, worldwide server revenue increased 16 percent year over year, while shipments grew 5.1 percent from the third quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, Inc.

“The third quarter of 2017 produced continued growth on a global level with varying regional results,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. “A build-out of infrastructure to support cloud and hybrid-cloud implementations was the main driver for growth in the server market for the period.”

“x86 servers increased 5.3 percent in shipments for the year and 16.7 percent in revenue in the third quarter of 2017. RISC/Itanium Unix servers declined globally, down 23.5 percent in shipments and 18.3 percent in vendor revenue compared with the same quarter last year. The ‘other’ CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed a decline/increase of 54.5 percent,” Mr. Hewitt said.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) continued to lead in the worldwide server market based on revenue. Despite a decline of 3.2 percent, the company posted $3.1 billion in revenue for a total share of 21 percent for the third quarter of 2017 (see Table 1). Dell EMC maintained the No. 2 position with 37.9 percent growth and 20.8 percent market share. Inspur Electronics experienced the highest growth in the quarter with 116.6 percent, driven by ongoing sales into China-based cloud providers, as well as global expansion efforts.

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 3Q17 (U.S. Dollars)

Company	3Q17 Revenue	3Q17 Market Share (%)	3Q16 Revenue	3Q16 Market Share (%)	3Q17-3Q16 Growth (%)
HPE	3,144,197,027	21.3	3,247,173,253	25.5	-3.2
Dell EMC	3,070,405,586	20.8	2,227,185,685	17.5	37.9
IBM	1,130,618,441	7.7	889,723,595	7.0	27.1
Inspur Electronics	1,085,706,835	7.4	501,144,279	3.9	116.6
Cisco	996,248,000	6.8	929,440,000	7.3	7.2
Others	5,317,865,262	36.1	4,920,169,892	38.7	8.1
Total	14,745,041,151	100.0	12,714,836,704	100.0	16.0

Source: Gartner (December 2017)

In server shipments, Dell EMC maintained the No. 1 position in the third quarter of 2017 with 17.8 percent market share (see Table 2). HPE secured the second spot with 16.4 percent of the market. Inspur Electronics was the only vendor in the top five to experience positive growth in the quarter.

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 3Q17 (Units)

Company	3Q17 Shipments	3Q17 Market Share (%)	3Q16 Shipments	3Q16 Market Share (%)	3Q17-3Q16 Growth (%)
Dell EMC	502,845	17.8	452,383	16.8	11.2
HPE	462,777	16.4	492,273	18.3	-6.2
Inspur Electronics	203,306	7.2	119,943	4.5	69.5
Lenovo	151,575	5.4	228,097	8.5	-33.5
Huawei	145,441	5.1	163,355	6.1	-11.0
Others	1,362,727	48.2	1,234,567	45.9	10.4
Total	2,828,617	100.0	2,691,618	100.0	5.1

Source: Gartner (November 2017)