However Gartner’s data shows overall shipments grew 3.6% year-on-year.
“The third quarter of 2012 again produced shipment growth on a worldwide level, but server revenue was weak due to ongoing economic weakness and market segment differences,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.
“Only the North America and Asia/Pacific regions managed any revenue growth, and even those were essentially flat year to year, with North America showing a 1.1% increase and Asia/Pacific a 0.7% increase.”
He added that the picture in terms of shipments was slightly more positive with North America, Latin America and Asia/Pacific all growing, but both EMEA and Japan continued to struggle and both saw shipments contract.
“x86 server shipments grew 4.3% in the third quarter of 2012, and revenue increased 4% from the third quarter of 2011,” Hewitt said.
From the regional standpoint, North America grew the most in shipments with a 7.4% increase. The region also posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 1.1% for the period.
Four of the top five global vendors had revenue decreases for the third quarter of 2012. Dell was the only vendor among the top five to have its revenue increase in the third quarter. IBM had the lead for the quarter in the worldwide server market based on revenue – the company posted $3.5bn in server vendor revenue for a total share of 27.6%. IBM’s revenue was down 9.5% year-on-year.
