According to the latest IDC statistics for EMEA, x86 server revenues are down 4.5 percent in Q2 2013, year on year.
x86 sales still held 71.3 percent of the total EMEA server market – a fall from 80.4 percent in the quarter before. The previous quarter saw a revenue decline of 1.5 percent. It’s not all doom and gloom: IDC’s Giorgio Nebuloni in the enterprise server group said product refreshes head for Q4 were the main reason for leaning on server spending for Q2, particularly in volume SMB.
IDC expects stabilisation for x86 spending next year, and perhaps some growth, with local cloud service projects and broader product refreshes contributing. But IDC also hopes for a “less negative macroeconomic scenario” – which is not entirely a given.
Mainframe performance did well for the quarter, however, with strong demand in western Europe – especially in the UK, France and Germany. Refreshes on previous generation mainframes helped, and IBM’s decision to release zEC12 in Q3 2012 helped.
“Mainframes are increasingly being deployed on Linux operating systems and high-availability needs remain a primary market engine in some industries,” IDC enterprise server group’s Beatriz Valle said.
In terms of vendors, HP was top for Q2 2013 – even with an annual revenue drop of 13.2 percent thanks to weaker demand for the x86 ProLiant servers. IBM was second, and Dell third, reports Digitimes.
