APAC server mkt: HP #1 in shipment; IBM in revenue

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Asia Pacific server market continued to show robust growth in the first quarter of 2011, with shipment growth of 21 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, according to Gartner. Server revenue increased 29 per cent year-on-year.

The double digit year-on-year growth in both shipments and revenue in Asia Pacific market achieved during the first quarter resulted in the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. Asia Pacific was the second fastest growing region after Eastern Europe.

Also Read: Global server market revenue up 12pc in 1Q11

Mainframe customers in countries such as Singapore, China, Taiwan and Korea continued to invest during the first quarter 2011, which together with demand for higher end servers in RISC and x86 segments, contributed significantly to overall market growth in those countries.

Overall server revenue in Singapore increased 63 per cent during the first quarter while it was up 37 per cent in China, by annual comparison.

Similarly, Taiwan and Korea saw server revenue grow by 31 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Spending on RISC and x86 servers continued to play key roles in Hong Kong during the quarter.

Also Read: Oracle rides high on Sun; server revenue up 34pc

Total server shipments in Hong Kong climbed 15 per cent and revenue grew 21 per cent year-on-year. Australia managed to grow modestly, with server revenue up 10 per cent this quarter, although shipments fell five per cent from the same quarter in 2010.

“Enterprise spending on server consolidation using virtualization technology continued to be a key driving factor for server market growth in this region,” said Erica Gadjuli, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“At the same time x86-based server sales showed excellent growth in Asia Pacific, up 21 per cent in shipments and 31 per cent in revenue from the same quarter in 2010. The IT investments by key verticals such as financial services and the public sector, driven by positive business sentiment, led to another healthy year-on-year revenue growth in mainframe and RISC/Itanium Unix servers, which grew 137 percent and 15.3 per cent respectively, during the first quarter.”

“As we expected, blade servers, including x86 and non-x86 based, grew the fastest — up 38 per cent by shipments and 68 per cent in revenue year-on-year — compared to other server form factors, namely rack mountable, rack optimized and tower/standalone.” HP continued to lead this segment with 40 per cent and 51 per cent share of shipments and revenue, correspondingly.

HP led the server market by shipments with 30 percent share overall in Asia Pacific while IBM held the leadership position in revenue, accounting for 41 per cent of the total market.

All top five vendors in this region had their share of success during the quarter with both shipment and revenue experienced double digit growth year-on-year.