HP ahead as desktop workstations battle on for market share

The overall certified workstation market maintained its growth momentum in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), with HP remaining the leading vendor across the industry.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Workstation Tracker, worldwide shipments were up 8.8 per cent year-over-year in 4Q14 to 946,089 units making this the seventh consecutive quarter of positive growth in a competitive market driven by traditional desktop workstations.

For the full year 2014, total worldwide shipments improved significantly to 3.7 million units and 8.9 per cent year-over-year growth compared to annual growth of 2.9 per cent in 2013.

Regionally speaking, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) accounted for 19.1 per cent of global shipments and ended the quarter with year-over-year growth of 19.5 per cent, its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

India and China continued to drive the regional growth, assisted by stronger adoption rates in Malaysia and Vietnam.

"Customers continue to demand alternative solutions that deliver high performance, quality, and value that will help increase productivity in engineering, architecture, finance, and graphic design," says Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Trackers Group.

"Engineering continues to be the driving force for workstation workloads and accounts for more than 57 per cent of the total market."

Vendor Highlights

The overall desktop workstation market, including all-in-ones, blade, rack, and traditional desktops, experienced a year-over-year decline of -0.8 per cent .

HP remained the leading vendor in the desktop workstation market with 44.6 per cent share despite a year-over-year decline of 2.7 per cent in shipments, which caused it to lose 1.2 points of market share sequentially and 0.9 points from a year ago.

Dell remained the number two desktop workstation vendor despite a year-over-year decline that exceeded the overall market.

With modest contractions of -1.8 per cent year-over-year and -3.3 per cent sequentially, Dell maintained 35.8% of market share, losing 0.4 points compared to a year ago and 0.8 sequentially.

The number three desktop vendor Lenovo continued to beat market expectations with remarkable growth and share gain from the leading vendors.

Lenovo ended the quarter with 33.1 per cent year-over-year growth, its 21st consecutive quarter of growth, and gained 3.4 points of share compared to 4Q13.

Fujitsu and NEC finished in the number four and five positions respectively, with single-digit market share and year-over-year growth that declined more rapidly than the overall market.