Beancounters at IDC have noted that while server numbers are down, sales revenues are doing OK thanks to higher ASPs.
A review of the global server market from IDC found that although demand had dropped year-on-year in first quarter by 5.1 percent the higher unit prices improved revenue by 4.4 percent.
Low-end and mid-range servers fared much better than higher-end products, which suffered a 24.7 percent decline, a second consecutive quarter of decline.
IDC research manager, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies Sebastian Lagana said that demand from both enterprise buyers and hyperscale companies purchasing through ODMs was less”voracious” than in previous quarters, coupled with a problematic compare period from a year ago, this affected the pace of market growth during the first quarter.
“This was most evident in declining unit shipments during the quarter, although the year-on-year average selling price (ASP) increases supported revenue growth for many vendors. As long as demand for richly configured servers supports further ASP growth, the market will offset slight declines in unit volume.”
Dell was at the top of the pile when it came to market share stats, with a 20.2 percent share, thanks to an 8.9 percent year on year improvement. HPE was the closest rival with a share of 17.8 per cent. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems, Lenovo and Cisco were all tied for third place.
HPE is increasing its server activities in the SME market and recently added more bundles to attract customers in that segment for channel partners to take out to market.
In Dell’s most recent financial results, the server side showed some weakness with a decline in the vendor’s infrastructure sales, but the impact of the China-US trade war was primarily blamed for the numbers.
