The worldwide server market performed better than expected in the first quarter of 2003, despite the threat of a lingering war with Iraq and a continued weak economy, which had an effect on IT spending during the quarter, Gartner Inc. said today in a statement
Worldwide server shipments in the first quarter rose to 1.2 million units, up 10.4% compared with the same period a year ago, according to preliminary numbers published by Gartner.
The top three vendors accounted for more than half of all servers shipped during the first quarter.
Hewlett-Packard Co. continued to hold the leading position in the worldwide ranking, accounting for 29.1% of server shipments. Dell Computer Corp. came in second place with 20.2% of the market, followed by IBM with 14.8%, according to the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm.
Sun Microsystems Inc. was the only top-tier vendor to suffer a decline in worldwide server shipments. Sun's shipments were 13.2% lower in the first quarter than they were in the same period a year ago. The company accounted for 4.9% of all shipments worldwide, Gartner said.
For the fifth consecutive quarter, server shipments in the U.S. experienced a year-over-year growth rate greater than 10%, increasing 13.2% in the first quarter to 499,609 shipped units from 441,540 units a year ago, according to Gartner.
Dell bumped HP from the top spot in the U.S. Dell accounted for 27% of U.S. server shipments. The vendor's strength in the U.S. is attributable in part to its partnerships with Oracle Corp., for database products, and EMC Corp., for storage systems, according to Gartner.
Because the war with Iraq started toward the end of the first quarter, it didn't have a severe effect on server shipments during the quarter, Gartner analyst Joseph Gonzalez said in the statement.