Latin American Server Market Declined 3 Percent in the First Quarter of 2003 - Gartner

Driven by slower sales in the IA32 segment, the Latin America server market suffered declines in shipments and revenue in the first quarter of 2003, according to Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT - News and ITB - News). Server shipments in Latin America declined 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2003, while server revenue dropped 2.8 percent from the first quarter of 2002. "Lower levels of investment in technology in Venezuela and most countries in the region affected the Intel server segment of the market which, in turn, affected the entire market. In contrast, Brazil and Mexico showed slight gains, and Argentina experienced a partial recovery," said Lillian Alvarado, senior industry analyst covering servers for Gartner‚s Computing Platforms Latin America group. Hewlett-Packard maintained the No. 1 position in server shipments, despite an 8.8 percent decline. IBM held onto the No. 2 spot, while the No. 3 vendor, Dell, experienced the strongest growth rate in server shipments, as it grew 39.6 percent. IBM was the top vendor in server revenue with 37.4 percent of the market. Hewlett-Packard was the No. 2 vendor, followed by Sun Microsystems, Dell and Itautec, respectively. IBM and Dell were the only top-tier vendors to experience positive growth in revenue. The RISC server segment experienced an increase in units shipped of 19.4 percent, mostly by IBM and Sun Microsystems. Servers in the lower-end drove the increase in shipments in this segment. Revenue in the RISC server segment increased by 15.6 percent. "RISC servers have expanded their offerings, particularly in the lower end, and have become more competitive in terms of pricing," said Alvarado. This information is produced by Gartner‚s Computing Platforms Latin America group. The group provides research on key aspects of the dynamic PC, server and printer hardware markets in Latin America. The focus is on regional and country issues in the top eight Latin American markets and the Rest of Latin America (ROLA) category, where Central American and Caribbean countries are grouped.