BANGALORE, INDIA: In the fourth quarter of 2009, worldwide server shipments grew 4.5 percent year-on-year, while revenue fell 3.2 percent, according to Gartner Inc. 

Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice resident, Gartner, said: “The recovery that began in the third quarter of 2009 based on x86 servers extended into the fourth quarter.However, it is important to put this into context.

The fourth quarter of 2008 was quite weak, so the fourth quarter of 2009 did not have to produce huge x86 server numbers to result in an increase. At the same time, other segments like RISC/Itanium Unix and mainframes remained constrained and that exerted downward pressure on overall vendor revenue results.”

"Blade servers pushed ahead with growth of 11.1 per cent in shipments and 22.1 per cent in vendor revenue for the period. RISC/Itanium Unix servers, on the other hand, dropped 30.5 per cent in shipments and fell 20 per cent in revenue in the fourth quarter," Hewitt said.

Regions that grew in shipments were Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and the US, at 19.6, 13.4, and 9.0 per cent, respectively. Canada, Eastern Europe, Japan, Latin America and Western Europe had shipment declines of 9.4, 13.3, 1.7, 6.8, and 4.0 per cent, respectively.

Regions that grew in vendor revenue were Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa at 9.1, 22.1, and 9.4 per cent, respectively. Canada, Eastern Europe, Japan, the US and Western Europe had sales declines of 1.7, 26.2, 6.7, 5.1, and 9.2 percent, respectively.

IBM continued to lead the worldwide server market based on revenue (see Table 1). In the fourth quarter of 2009, IBM's server revenue was about $4.1 billion, reflecting a 5.9 percent year-on-year decline. IBM's market share was 32.7 percent, a one percentage point decline.

System x grew, while System p and System z posted declines for the quarter.

Of the top five global vendors, HP, Dell and Fujitsu grew in revenue for the quarter while IBM and Sun posted declines.