According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) latest information, the overall certified workstation market maintained its growth momentum in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14). Worldwide shipments were up 8.8% 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% year-over-year growth compared to annual growth of 2.9% in 2013.
Regional Highlights
Emerging markets continued to grow faster than developed markets in 2014. Latin America, with 2.7% global market share, had double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive quarter and gained 0.5 points of share from a year ago. Overall the region ended 4Q14 with 33.3% year-over-year growth with Mexico and Brazil growing at 76.2% and 8.5% respectively.
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) accounted for 19.1% of global shipments and ended the quarter with year-over-year growth of 19.5%, 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.
The U.S. and Western Europe accounted for 63.6% of worldwide shipments with year-over-year growth of 16.1% and 8.2% respectively.
“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,” said 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% of the total market.”
Vendor Highlights – Desktop Workstations
The overall desktop workstation market, including all-in-ones, blade, rack, and traditional desktops, experienced a year-over-year decline of -0.8%.
HP remained the leading vendor in the desktop workstation market with 44.6% share despite a year-over-year decline of 2.7% 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 2 desktop workstation vendor despite a year-over-year decline that exceeded the overall market. With modest contractions of -1.8% year-over-year and -3.3% sequentially, Dell maintained 35.8% of market share, losing 0.4 points compared to a year ago and 0.8 sequentially.
The number 3 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% 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 4 and 5 positions respectively, with single-digit market share and year-over-year growth that declined more rapidly than the overall market.
