How's that again? Gartner revamps its Q1 server revenue data

By Jacqueline Emigh | Published July 7, 2008, 12:56 PM

HP didn't push IBM off the top spot in worldwide server revenues after all, according to Gartner. In revised statistics issued by the analyst firm late last week, the firm cut its overall server revenue numbers for the Q1 almost in half.

For Q1 of 2008, worldwide server revenues increased by only 2.5 percent, instead of the 4.3 percent originally announced in May, according to a statement issued by the Gartner.

The newer data released last Thursday -- the day before the Fourth of July holiday in the US -- gives IBM a 29.4% share of worldwide server revenues, rather than the 28.9% reported by Gartner in May. Hewlett-Packard now gets a 28.3% share, instead of the 29.6 percent reported in May. Dell lands in third place, with 12.3%.

Also according to the changed market data, the total worldwide server market amounted to about $12.9 billion for the first quarter, as opposed to $13.6 billion.

In the statement on Thursday, Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner, attributed the data modifications to "updated guidance and additional analysis of the data."

Gartner, however, did not make changes to its estimates of server units shipped during the first quarter, which give HP the market lead with a 30.1% share, followed by Dell with a 22.7% share, and IBM, with a 13.3% share.

The firm has pegged total worldwide server units shipped for the first quarter of 2008 at around 2.27 billion, for a 7.6% gain over Q1 2007.

How could HP come out ahead of IBM in shipments, but not in revenues? Gartner's server category includes pricey mainframe computers -- a category dominated by IBM -- in addition to x86 and RISC/Itanium-based servers.

In a statement issued last May, Hewitt cited several factors as playing into the overall gains in server shipments in revenues: "For example, x86 server replacements were on an upswing as the year commenced, we continued to see buildouts of large Web data centers, and emerging-market growth forged ahead."