EMEA server market falls for sixth straight quarter

IDC figures show regional server revenue shrank more than 10 per cent in Q1

The EMEA server market was dealt another blow as IDC figures released today paint an even bleaker picture than Gartner's did two weeks ago.

According to IDC's analysis of 2013's first quarter, revenue in the EMEA server market plummeted 10.5 per cent year on year. Less than a fortnight ago, Gartner said sales for the same period were down 9.6 per cent.

In IDC's most recent figures, it claims EMEA server revenue reached just $2.8bn (£1.8bn) in Q1, and in euros, the decline was even sharper – with revenue dropping 11.1 per cent to €2.1bn. This was the sixth consecutive quarter of annual revenue declines in the region.

Of the top five server vendors in EMEA, only Dell managed to post annual growth, growing its annual revenue 12.6 per cent and maintaining its third-place position. IDC put Dell's success down to strong demand for its density-optimised datacentre solutions business.

Fifth-place Oracle and second-place IBM suffered the sharpest declines in the top five, with their annual revenue for the quarter falling 32.1 and 23.5 per cent respectively. IDC said Oracle's Unix line of enterprise servers and its x86 industry-standard offering both suffered losses, which contributed to the figures.

Despite HP maintaining its clear position as EMEA market leader – holding a 14.5 per cent lead over nearest rival IBM – the vendor posted a 13.5 per cent annual decline in sales across the period. Fourth-place Fujitsu's revenue decline was more modest at 0.5 per cent, and the vendor managed to steal some market share, with its 2012 Q1 figure of 5.8 per cent jumping to 6.5 per cent this year.

Giorgio Nebuloni, research manager for the enterprise server group at IDC in EMEA, said not even improved value for money is helping some server sales, as companies look to integrate their systems.

"Despite product launches by major vendors and ever-improving value for money, systems based on RISC and EPIC processors, typically supporting traditional Unix environments, have struggled to keep afloat," he explained.

"Part of the spending intended to keep core business applications running is now absorbed by new integrated system offerings combining x86 and lower-end RISC/EPIC blades with storage and networking back ends."