IDC Server Market Share Leaders: Dell, HPE, IBM Battle It Out
CRN breaks down the top five server market share leaders in the world during the fourth quarter 2018, according to new data from IDC.
By The Numbers: Worldwide Server Market Share
The worldwide server market is showing no signs of slowing down as sales reached $23.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2018, representing a global revenue increase of 12.6 percent year over year, according to IT research firm IDC.
“Enterprises are buying richly configured servers to support resource intensive workloads, resulting in higher average selling prices and pushing revenue growth higher than growth from unit shipments,” said Sebastian Lagana, research manager for Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC in a statement.
Worldwide server shipments increased five percent year over year to nearly 3 million units sold in the fourth quarter. The quarter marks the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth for the server industry. CRN breaks down the global server market leaders for the fourth quarter 2018 based on IDC data.
ODM Direct
Q4 Market Share: 20.1%
Q4 Server Revenue: $4.74 Billion
Units Shipped: 695,900
The group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) combined for the largest server market share at 20.1 percent, representing flat market share year over year, which IDC said was an “uncharacteristically low growth rate” for the group of companies. The ODM Direct group generated $4.74 billion in total server sales, up 11.6 percent year over year. ODMs typically build and sell commodity, tailor-made products in bulk for mainly large public cloud and service providers.
ODMs shipped a total of 695,900 server units in the quarter, an increase of 6.6 percent year over year. The ODMs shipped 23.3 percent of all of server units in the fourth quarter, a slight increase from 22.9 percent in the same quarter one year ago.
Dell
Q4 Market Share: 18.7%
Q4 Server Revenue: $4.43 Billion
Units Shipped: 580,600
The Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant sold the most servers and generated the most server revenue out of any vendor in the world during the fourth quarter 2018. Dell captured $4.43 billion in server revenue, up 20.4 percent year over year. Dell won 18.7 percent global market share, compared to 17.5 percent share it received in fourth quarter 2017.
Dell sold a total of 580,600 servers during the quarter, which represents a slight decline from the 582,500 units it shipped in fourth quarter 2017. Dell’s server unit shipment market share dropped from 20.4 percent to 19.4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter 2018.
HPE
Q4 Market Share: 17.8%
Q4 Server Revenue: $4.2 Billion
Units Shipped: 473,800
Hewlett Packard Enterprise received the silver medal for both global server market share and total servers shipped in the fourth quarter 2018. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company generated a total of $4.2 billion in server sales, an increase of 10.5 percent year over year. HPE’s market share dropped from 18.1 percent share in fourth quarter 2017 to 17.8 percent share.
HPE sold a total of 473,800 server units in the quarter, down from the 483,700 units it shipped during the same quarter one year ago. HPE’s server unit shipment market share dropped from 17 percent to 15.8 percent year over year.
IBM
Q4 Market Share: 8.3 %
Q4 Server Revenue: $1.95 Billion
Units Shipped: Less than 190,000
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM saw the biggest vendor drop in server revenue during the fourth quarter, with sales falling 27.6 percent year over year to $1.95 billion. IBM’s market share dropped from 12.8 percent in fourth quarter 2017 to 8.3 percent. However, it is key to note that due to an existing joint venture between IBM and Inspur, IDC excluded server revenue from Power Systems sales generated through Inspur Power Systems in China.
IDC did not provide the amount of server units IBM shipped, meaning Big Blue shipped fewer than 190,000 servers during the quarter.
Inspur
Q4 Market Share: 6.6
Q4 Server Revenue: $1.55 Billion
Units Shipped: 247,600
The fastest-growing server vendor in the quarter with 70.7 percent revenue growth year over year was Inspur, which generated $1.55 billion. Inspur’s market share also rose from a 4.3 share in fourth quarter 2017 to a 6.6 share.
Inspur shipped the third most server units during the quarter, trailing only HPE and Dell, by selling a total of 247,600 servers, representing an increase of 35.7 percent year over year. Inspur’s server units shipped market share rose from 6.4 percent to 8.3 percent year over year.
Lenovo
Q4 Market Share: 6.2%
Q4 Server Revenue: $1.46 Billion
Units Shipped: 190,700
Lenovo’s Data Center Group generated $1.46 billion in server sales in the fourth quarter, up 33.8 percent year over year, representing the second highest server growth in the market. The company’s market share increased year over year from 5.2 percent to 6.2 percent share in fourth quarter 2018.
In terms of server units shipped, Lenovo sold a total of 190,700 servers in the quarter, up 5 percent year over year. The company’s server units shipped market share was 6.4 percent, which is flat on a year over year basis.
Fastest Growing Markets And x86 Demand
Demand for x86 servers increased 19 percent in the fourth quarter year over year to $21.1 billion in sales, while demand for non-x86 servers declined nearly 22 percent year over year to $2.5 billion. Breaking down the server market based on geography, Asia Pacific -- excluding Japan -- was the fastest growing region during the quarter with 25.5 percent year-over-year revenue growth. Latin America grew 15.4 percent during the quarter, while the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region grew 15.2 percent on aggregate on a year over year basis. Japan grew 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter 2018, followed by the United States with 5.1 percent growth, while Canada declined 5.7 percent on a year over year basis.