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TechTrade | 08 Jun 2012 :  Latest figures from IDC's EMEA server tracker reveal that server sales were down by 11.9% in the first quarter of 2012. Shipments reached 556,887 units, an annual decline of 3.8%.This was the second consecutive quarter of annual revenue declines, and the first double-digit decrease since the third quarter of 2009.

The x86 server segment remained the main growth engine with revenue of $2.2 billion, equivalent to 73.0% of the total value market. Q1 2012 was also the 13th consecutive quarter where x86 server sales surpassed non-x86 server sales.

Nathaniel Martinez, research director in the enterprise server group for IDC EMEA, said that "EMEA server vendors in 1Q12 continued to face up to a number of market challenges, compounded by a very difficult economic environment. Overall, the EMEA server market in 1Q12 was in line with IDC expectations and presented a very mixed picture in terms of server spending with countries across the region showing important discrepancies in terms of trends".

In western Europe, the market continued with trends with sales of $1.6 billion in x86servers, 71.8% of total factory revenue in 1Q12. Non-x86 sales reached $668.6 billion, accounting for 28.2% of the total Western European market.

"The Western European region is a mature market and the difficult macroeconomic conditions, as well as the uncertainty about the future of the euro area, compounded the current slowdown in server spending, particularly in the non-x86 market, leading to server sales declines sharper than in other EMEA subregions." said Beatriz Valla, senior research analyst, enterprise server group, IDC EMEA.

Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) recorded the first negative quarter in over a year. An uncertain environment, coupled with austerity measures in the public sector across many countries in the region, had an adverse effect on server demand. Central and Eastern Europe remained positive with growth of 4% year on year to reach a total market value of $397.72 million.

Overall, x86 server revenue reached $2.2 billion which accounted for 73% of the total market. EPIC servers experienced the sharpest fall in sales of non-x86, down 46.5% while CISC and RISC systems were down 34.3% and 16.8% respectively.

By operating system, Windows held 52% of the market, generating hardware spending of $1.6 billion. Linux was the only operating system to experience positive growth year on year, up 6.5% at $750 million. Unix declined on the back of weaker RISC system sales.

In the vendor market, HP recovered its top spot in the EMEA server market for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2007. The vendor outperformed IBM by 11.9% despite a decline of 19.1%. HP remained the x86 leader with its ProLiant line selling $1 billion which accounted for 46.8% of the total x86 market in EMEA.

Dell increased its market share by 2.4% while Oracle grew its market share slightly by half a percentage point. Oracle's SPARC family generated 57.3% of its sales. Fujitsu grew its market share by 0.2 of a percentage points and continued to successfully transition the business mix to its Primergy line of x86 servers.

Fiona Donnellan