Gartner: Server Shipments Declined 3.8 Percent in Asia Pacific in 2009 but Showed Strong Growth in Q4

As a result of the challenging economic environment during 2009, server shipments to the Asia Pacific region showed a decline of 3.8 percent while vendor revenue fell 6.2 percent from 2008 levels, according to technology research and advisory firm Gartner. However in the fourth quarter of 2009, Asia Pacific server shipments grew 19.6 percent over the same quarter in the prior year, while revenue grew 9.1 percent.

Total server shipments to the Asia Pacific region during the fourth quarter was 417,531 units while vendor revenue reached US$2.07 billion. The Asia Pacific region emerged as the fastest growing server market in terms of volume which was driven largely by the x86 segments.

While positive revenue year-on-year growth had generally returned in Australia and New Zealand (21.4 percent), Greater China (11.2 percent) and ASEAN (7.0 percent) during the fourth quarter, Korea and India remained at a slow pace of recovery with negative 4.7 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

Gartner principal research analyst Erica Gadjuli said: “In the Greater China region, Hong Kong and Taiwan came out strongly this quarter, thanks to the restoration of business confidence there. Likewise, server revenue in Australia and Singapore also saw a rebound in the fourth quarter, thanks to active spending by the public sector. Server consolidation in major sectors such as financial services and telecommunication continued to be key driver for IT spending in China.”

x86 servers was the only segment posting a year-on-year increase in shipment and revenue, at 21.8 percent and 24.0 percent respectively. x86 servers accounted for 53.1 percent of total market revenue in Q409 which was a significant increase from 46.7 percent in 4Q08. While two socket servers remained ‘sweet spots’ during the quarter, one socket servers recorded a positive year-on-year growth in volume after five consecutive weak quarters, suggesting a sign of recovery in the small and medium business (SMB) segment. On the contrary, the RISC/Itanium Unix server platform in Asia Pacific compared poorly with the previous year, even though sequential quarterly growth maintained in positive territory.

Shipments of blade servers (including x86 blades and RISC/IA-64 blades) reported growth of 24 percent from the same period in 2008 as well as revenue growth of 44 percent. HP maintained its leadership in blades with 44.6 percent unit market share; IBM followed at 29.5 percent.

Table 1: Asia/Pacific: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q 2009 (U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

As shown in Tables 1 and 2, the Asia Pacific server leader in revenue was IBM with 40.5 percent market share while HP commanded 30.6 percent of total unit shipment. All major server vendors had year-on-year revenue growth, except Sun Microsystems. HP and Dell managed double-digit growth in revenue primarily benefiting from stronger market demand for x86s.

Table 2: Asia/Pacific: Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q 2009 (Units)

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

Full-Year 2009 Asia Pacific Server Market Results

As a result of a challenging economic environment in 2009, server shipment to Asia Pacific in 2009 finished with a decline of 3.8 percent while vendor revenue fell 6.2 percent from the full year 2008. In 2009, server shipped to Asia Pacific was totaling in 1.4 million units and revenue registered US$7.1 billion.

Revenues for the RISC/Itanium Unix platform was impacted the most, down 12 percent from 2008, as enterprises’ concern over cost containment rose significantly during the first half of 2009. Blade servers in Asia Pacific recorded a revenue increase of 9.8 percent and shipments were up 8.9 percent for the year. HP continued to hold the leadership in this form factor in 2009 with 43.5 percent shipment share; IBM was in second place at 34.8 percent.

Additional information is available to subscribers of Gartner Dataquest’s Servers Quarterly Statistics Asia Pacific program. This program provides market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments of thirteen major countries in Asia Pacific. Segments include: vendor, vendor brand, sub brand, CPU type, CPU group, Max CPU, platform, price band and operating system.

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