Worldwide Server Revenue Up 25.7% in Q4 of 2017

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The worldwide server market continued to grow through 2017 as worldwide server revenue increased 25.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017, while shipments grew 8.8% year over year, according to Gartner, Inc. In all of 2017, worldwide server shipments grew 3.1% and server revenue increased 10.4% compared with full-year 2016.

"Server growth was driven by relatively strong economies for the quarter across the globe," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "This was a somewhat surprising quarter because the strength was exhibited in a variety of positive server shipment and revenue mixes in almost all geographies."

Regional results were a mixed bag. North America and Asia/Pacific were particularly robust demonstrating double-digit growth in revenue (27.6% and 35.1%, respectively). In terms of shipments, North America grew 9.7% and Asia/Pacific grew 21.2%. EMEA posted strong yearly revenue growth of 19.9% while shipments decreased 7.9%. Japan grew 4.8% in revenue, but declined 5.1% in shipments. Latin America was the only region to exhibit a decline in both shipments (negative 4.7%) and revenue (negative 2.9%) in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) were neck-and-neck in the worldwide server market based on revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017 (see Table 1). Dell EMC ended the year in the No. 1 spot with 19.4% market share, followed closely by HPE with 19.3% of the market. Dell EMC experienced strong growth in the quarter with 39.9% growth. HPE grew 5.5%. Inspur Electronics experienced the strongest growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 127.8% growth.

Table 1
Worldwide: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q17 (U.S. Dollars)

In server shipments, Dell EMC maintained the No. 1 position in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 18.2% market share (see Table 2). Despite a decline of 12.8% in server shipments, HPE secured the second spot with 13.8% of the market.Source: Gartner (March 2018).

Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 4Q17 (Units)

The x86 server market increased in revenue by 23.7%, and shipments were up 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Full-Year 2017 Server Market Results

In 2017, worldwide sever shipments increased 3.1%, while revenue grew 10.4%.

"Both enterprises and hyperscale data centers produced positive results globally for the year as end users seek to implement more digital business solutions," said Mr. Hewitt. "The outlook for 2018 suggests that modest growth will continue, with enterprise end users taking an ongoing hybrid approach to both on-premises and public cloud choices based on their server application objectives."

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.