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The first quarter of 2007 proved another winner for both IBM and Hewlett-Packard as the two IT giants led the industry in both server shipments and revenue, according to separate reports by IDC and Gartner.
IBM led Gartners survey with $3.8 billion in server revenue during the first quarter of 2007, an increase of 8.4 percent compared with the previous year. HP, IBMs main competitor in the server market, came in second with $3.6 billion in revenue—an increase of 5.4 percent compared with the first quarter of 2006.
In server shipments, HP held a 30 percent market share in the first quarter of 2007, an increase of 17.8 percent, according to Gartner. Dell, which has its share of struggles in the past year in both its PC and server businesses, came in second with a 21 percent share of market. IBM ranked third with 14 percent, a drop of little more than 1 percent compared with last year.
The IDC report, which looked at servers in terms of revenue, found HP and IBM tied for first place in the first quarter of 2007, with a 29.2 and a 28.9 percent market share, respectively.
Overall, the May 22 Gartner study and the May 23 IDC study found the server market grew in the first quarter of 2007. Gartner found server revenue hit $12.9 billion, or an increase of 4.5 percent. IDC calculated the market at $12.4 billion, or an increase of 4.9 percent.
The Garter report found shipments increased 6 percent compared with last year, while the IDC report found shipments increased 4.5 percent.
Gartner analysts found that IBMs revenue growth was driven by sales of its System p, System x and System z servers. IBMs blade server shipments and revenue also grew in the quarter, although HP remained first in that particular segment of the market.
In terms of revenue, Gartner found that Dell finished third behind IBM and HP, although it gained more than 10 percent market share compared with 2006, with revenues of $1.4 billion. Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens rounded out the top five.
On the shipment side, HP was helped along by its one- and two-socket x86 servers with its ProLiant, Integrity and NonStop server lines leading the way. After Dell and IBM, Fujitsu came in fourth, while Sun lost 10 percent of its market share in this area and rounded out the top five.
The IDC report concluded that the market for servers will only increase in the coming months as companies look to invest in their IT infrastructure in order to keep up with business demands.
“This next generation infrastructure will be denser, more energy efficient, easier to manage, better integrated, more virtual, and much more resilient,” wrote analyst Matt Eastwood in the IDC report. “For most organizations this represents a long-term journey requiring IT investment in the new computing capabilities necessary to meet the IT and business flexibility needs of tomorrows dynamic enterprise.”
Like Gartner, IDC found that IBM was helped along by its System p, System z, and System x offerings, while HPs Integrity and ProLiant systems benefited the most during the quarter.
In the blade space, HP led the way with 41 percent of the market in terms of revenue, while IBM placed second with 35 percent.
After HP and IBM, Sun and Dell were each tied for third place on IDCs list with almost 11 percent market share each. Suns revenue grew 6.3 percent, while Dells grew only 1.7 percent.
Fujitsu lost 5.6 percent of its market share and ranked fifth, according to IDC.