Worldwide Server Market Revenue Grew 12.0% Year Over Year in the First Quarter of 2021, According to IDC

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, the worldwide server market grew 12.0% year over year to $20.9 billion during the first quarter of 2021 (1Q21). Worldwide server shipments grew 8.3% year over year to nearly 2.8 million units in 1Q21.

Sales of volume servers were up 15.4% to $17.3 billion during the quarter, while midrange server sales declined 2.7% to $2.4 billion. High-end server sales grew 0.1% to $1.2 billion.

"The first quarter 2021 server market performance benefited from a comparison against the most difficult quarter of last year's pandemic stricken year, but this fact doesn't tell a complete story," said Paul Maguranis, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC. "The considerable increase of server investments during the quarter were also buoyed by global economic tailwinds along with increased investments targeting the modernization of business applications, datacenter infrastructure, and IT operations."

Overall Server Market Standings, by Company

Dell Technologies held the top worldwide server market ranking in 1Q21, accounting for 17.0% of total revenue. HPE/H3C(a) was the second largest company, accounting for 15.9% of total revenue. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems(b) and Lenovo were tied for third with 7.2% and 6.9% respective share of total revenue. The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 26.3% of total server revenue during the quarter. The top suppliers of 1Q21 server unit shipments were Dell Technologies (17.5%), HPE/H3C(a) (14.5%), Inspur/Inspur Power Systems(b) (8.0%), and Lenovo (6.1%).

In addition to the table above, a graphic illustrating the worldwide market share of the top 5 server companies in 1Q21 and 1Q20 is available by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

Top Server Market Findings

On a geographic basis, server revenue in China was up 29.1% year over year while Asia/Pacific (excluding China and Japan) increased 16.6%. Latin America declined 9.1% and North America grew 10.6% year over year.

Revenue generated from x86 servers increased 10.9% in 1Q21 to $18.7 billion. Non-x86 server revenue grew 23.0% year over year to $2.2 billion.

Notes:

* IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide server market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the share of revenues or shipments among two or more vendors.

(a) Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and H3C, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for HPE and H3C as "HPE/H3C" starting from 2Q 2016. Per the JV agreement, Tsinghua Holdings subsidiary, Unisplendour Corporation, through a wholly owned affiliate, purchased a 51% stake in H3C and HPE has a 49% ownership stake in the new company.

(b) Inspur revenues include revenues and server units for Inspur Power Systems. Inspur is reported as a separate company with revenues including Inspur OEM systems and Inspur Power Systems locally developed and branded systems revenue. Per the JV agreement, 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.

IDC's Server Taxonomy

IDC's Server Taxonomy maps the eleven price bands within the server market into three price ranges: volume servers, midrange servers and high-end servers. The revenue data presented in this release is stated as vendor revenue for a server system. IDC presents data in vendor revenue to determine market share position. Vendor revenue represents those dollars recognized by multi-user system and server vendors for ISS (initial server shipment) and upgrade units sold through direct and indirect channels and includes the following embedded server components: Frame or cabinet and all cables, processors, memory, communications boards, operating system software, other bundled software and initial internal and external disk shipments.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker is a quantitative tool for analyzing the global server market on a quarterly basis. The Tracker includes quarterly unit shipments and revenues (both vendor revenue and value of shipments), segmented by vendor, family, model, region, operating system, price band, CPU type, and architecture. The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker is part of the Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker, which provides a holistic total addressable market view of the five key enabling infrastructure technologies for the datacenter (servers, external enterprise storage systems, purpose-built appliances: HCI and PBBA, and datacenter switches).

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at 305-351-3057 or lfernandez@idc.com.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly Excel deliverables and on-line query tools.

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About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights.

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According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, worldwide server market revenues grew 12.0% year over year to $20.9 billion during Q1 2021.