Blade servers were still able to grow for the year with a revenue increase of 30.6 percent and a shipment increase of 30 percent for the year. HP was the 2008 leader, accounting for 47.3 percent of blade shipments, while IBM was in second place at 26.2 percent. These two vendors continued to dominate this form factor.

“The outlook for 2009 is a very challenging one, with the pattern of the fourth quarter more indicative for the level of demand in 2009 than that seen in 2008 as a whole,” Kota said. “The continued weak economic environment will cause users to be extremely cautious with levels of expenditure which will make for a particularly challenging environment for vendors. The server market already has high levels of vendor consolidation but the conditions expected during 2009 will increase the threat of further consolidation.”

Additional information is available to subscribers of Gartner Dataquest’s Servers Quarterly Statistics Worldwide program. This program provides worldwide market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments. Segments include: region, vendor, vendor brand, sub brand, CPU type, CPU group, Max CPU, platform, price band, operating systems and distribution channels.