According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, vendor revenue in the worldwide server market grew 1.5% year over year to $25.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20). Worldwide server shipments declined 3.0% year over year to nearly 3.3 million units in 4Q20.
Volume server revenue was up 3.7% to $20.4 billion, midrange server revenue also increased 8.4% to $3.3 billion, while high-end servers declined by 21.8% to $2.1 billion.
“Global demand for enterprise servers was relatively flat during the fourth quarter of 2020 with the strongest increase to demand coming from China (PRC),” said Paul Maguranis, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC. “From a regional perspective, server revenue within PRC grew 22.7% year over year while the rest of the world declined 4.2%. Blade systems continued to decline, down 18.1% while rack optimized servers grew 10.3% year over year. Similar to the previous quarter, servers running AMD CPUs as well as ARM-based servers continued to grow revenue, increasing 100.9% and 345.0% year over year respectively, albeit on a small but growing base.”
Overall Server Market Standings, by Company
HPE/New H3C Groupa and Dell Technologies were tied* for the top position in the worldwide server market based on 4Q20 revenues. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems finished third, while IBMc held the fourth position. Huawei and Lenovo tied* for the fifth position in the market.
Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and the New H3C Group, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for HPE and New H3C Group as “HPE/New H3C Group” starting from 2Q 2016. Per the JV agreement, Tsinghua Holdings subsidiary, Unisplendour Corporation, through a wholly-owned affiliate, purchased a 51% stake in New H3C and HPE has a 49% ownership stake in the new company.
Due to the existing joint venture between IBM and Inspur, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for Inspur and Inspur Power Systems as “Inspur/Inspur Power Systems” starting from 3Q 2018. The JV, Inspur Power Commercial System Co., Ltd., has total registered capital of RMB 1 billion, with Inspur investing RMB 510 million for a 51% equity stake, and IBM investing RMB 490 million for the remaining 49% equity stake.
IBM server revenue excludes sales of Power Systems generated through Inspur Power Systems in China, starting from 3Q 2018.
In terms of server units shipped, Dell Technologies held the top position in the market, followed closely by HPE/New H3C Group in the second position. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems, Huawei, and Lenovo finished the quarter in third, fourth, and fifth place, respectively.