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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 percent. Japan grew 4.8 percent 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 percent 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)
| Company | 4Q17
Revenue |
4Q17 Market Share (%) | 4Q16
Revenue |
4Q16 Market Share (%) | 4Q17-4Q16 Growth (%) |
| Dell EMC | 3,606,976,178 | 19.4 | 2,578,181,854 | 17.4 | 39.9 |
| HPE | 3,578,005,770 | 19.3 | 3,392,601,012 | 23.0 | 5.5 |
| IBM | 2,623,501,533 | 14.1 | 1,732,474,861 | 11.7 | 51.4 |
| Inspur Electronics | 1,260,671,411 | 6.8 | 553,514,048 | 3.7 | 127.8 |
| Huawei | 1,244,283,075 | 6.7 | 1,149,813,371 | 7.8 | 8.2 |
| Others | 6,253,392,745 | 33.7 | 5,369,366,683 | 36.3 | 16.5 |
| Total | 18,566,830,711 | 100.0 | 14,775,951,829 | 100.0 | 25.7 |
Source: Gartner (March 2018)
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.
Table 2
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipments Estimates, 4Q17 (Units)
| Company | 4Q17
Shipments |
4Q17 Market Share (%) | 4Q16
Shipments |
4Q16 Market Share (%) | 4Q17-4Q16 Growth (%) |
| Dell EMC | 582,720 | 18.2 | 562,029 | 19.1 | 3.7 |
| HPE | 439,936 | 13.8 | 504,407 | 17.2 | -12.8 |
| Huawei | 257,916 | 8.1 | 245,611 | 8.4 | 5.0 |
| Inspur Electronics | 235,658 | 7.4 | 141,132 | 4.8 | 67.0 |
| Lenovo | 181,523 | 5.7 | 220,296 | 7.5 | -17.6 |
| Others | 1,499,578 | 46.9 | 1,265,169 | 43.1 | 18.5 |
| Total | 3,197,331 | 100.0 | 2,938,644 | 100.0 | 8.8 |
Source: Gartner (March 2018)
The x86 server market increased in revenue by 23.7%, and shipments were up 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017.