Gartner Says Worldwide Server Revenue Grew 33.4 Percent in the First Quarter of 2018, While Shipments Increased 17.3 Percent

The growth at the end of 2017 continued for the worldwide server market in the first quarter of 2018 as worldwide server revenue increased 33.4 percent and shipments grew 17.3 percent year over year, according to Gartner, Inc.

“The server market was driven by increases in spending by hyperscale as well as enterprise and midsize data centers. Enterprises and midsize businesses are in the process of investing in their on-premises and colocation infrastructure to support server replacements and growth requirements even as they continue to invest in public cloud solutions,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. “Additionally, when it came to server average selling prices (ASP) increases for the quarter, one driver was the fact that DRAM prices increased due to constrained supplies.”

Regional results were mixed. North America and Asia/Pacific experienced particularly strong growth double-digit growth in revenue (34 percent and 47.8 percent, respectively). In terms of shipments, North America grew 24.3 percent and Asia/Pacific grew 21.9 percent. EMEA posted strong yearly revenue growth of 32.1 percent while shipments increased 2.7 percent. Japan experienced a decline in both shipments and revenue (-5.0 percent and -7.3 percent, respectively). Latin America experienced a decline in shipments (-1.8 percent), but growth in revenue (19.2 percent).

Dell EMC experienced 51.4 growth in the worldwide server market based on revenue in the first quarter of 2018 (see Table 1). This growth helped widen the gap a bit between Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as Dell EMC ended the quarter in the No. 1 spot with 21.5 percent market share, followed closely by HPE with 19.9 percent of the market. Inspur Electronics experienced the strongest growth in the first quarter of 2018 with 120.4 percent growth.

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 1Q18 (U.S. Dollars)

Company	1Q18 Revenue	1Q18 Market Share (%)	1Q17 Revenue	1Q17 Market Share (%)	1Q18-1Q17 Growth (%)
Dell EMC	3,593,916,375	21.5	2,373,171,860	19.0	51.4
HPE	3,321,304,736	19.9	3,009,569,241	24.1	10.4
Inspur Electronics	1,188,428,802	7.1	539,259,419,	4.3	120.4
Lenovo	1,088,922,220	6.5	731,647,279	5.8	48.8
IBM	1,067,701,728	6.4	831,622,879	6.6	28.4
Others	6,432,219,303	38.5	5,023,547,428	40.2	28.0
Total	16,692,493,164	100.0	12,508,818,106	100.0	33.4

Source: Gartner (June 2018)

In server shipments, Dell EMC maintained the No. 1 position in the first quarter of 2018 with 18.2 percent market share (see Table 2). Despite a decline of 8.5 percent in server shipments, HPE secured the second spot with 13.1 percent of the market.

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 1Q18 (Units)

Company	1Q18 Shipments	1Q18 Market Share (%)	1Q17 Shipments	1Q17 Market Share (%)	1Q18-1Q17 Growth (%)
Dell EMC	555, 792	18.2	466,800	17.9	19.1
HPE	400,958	13.1	428,169	16.8	-8.5
Inspur Electronics	200,283	6.6	139,203	5.4	43.9
Huawei	182,227	6.0	156,559	6.0	16.4
Lenovo	157,047	5.1	145,977	5.6	7.6
Others	1,555,783	51.0	1,254,892	48.2	24.0
Total	3,052,091	100.0	2,601,600	100.0	17.3

Source: Gartner (June 2018)

The x86 server market increased in revenue by 35.7 percent, and shipments were up 17.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018. The RISC/Itanium UNIX market continued to struggle with shipments down 52.8 percent, while revenue declined 46.7 percent.

Additional information is available to clients who have access to Gartner’s Servers Quarterly Statistics. This database provides worldwide market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments. Segments include region, vendor, vendor brand, subbrand, CPU type, CPU group, max CPU, platform, price band, operating system and distribution channel.

Server market trends and infrastructure and operations will be further discussed at the at the Gartner Global Infrastructure & Operations events taking place June 26-27 in Mexico City, November 27-28 in London and December 3-6 in Las Vegas.