Worldwide server shipments for the first quarter of 2008 increased by 7,6% over the same quarter last year, while worldwide server revenue for the same period climbed by 4,3% according to Gartner. Worldwide server revenues totalled $13,6bn for the quarter, as worldwide servers shipments reached just under 2,3m units.

"There were a number of dynamics that affected the market to produce an initial quarter of growth for 2008," says Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice-president at Gartner. "For example, x86 server replacements were on an upswing as the year commenced, we continued to see build outs of large Web data centres, and emerging market growth forged ahead."

"RISC-Itanium Unix servers fell in shipments but showed a small amount of growth in revenue," Hewitt adds. "In this segment, shipments fell by 8,4% while revenue grew by 3,7% for the quarter."

HP and IBM continue to vie for market leadership in the worldwide server market based on revenue. HP took the overall revenue share lead over IBM by a narrow 0,7% for the quarter. HP had increases in both its ProLiant and HP Integrity brands which offset some revenue declines in its other brands.

This produced a year-to-year revenue increase of 10,3% for the period and pushed HP's share up by 1,6%. HP also increased its worldwide blade server revenue share to just over 13% compared to the same quarter last year.

Dell, Fujitsu/FSC, and IBM all had revenue growth for the period at 6,6%, 4,9% and 2,1% respectively. Sun was the only global vendor not to have server revenue growth - it had a slight decline at just less than 1%.

In server shipments, HP grew by just over 7,8% compared to the first quarter of 2007, and retained its worldwide server shipment lead. The share gap between it and second-place Dell decreased by 1,5 percentage points for the quarter.

HP finished the quarter with just over a 30% shipment share for the period. HP's ProLiant and HP Integrity product lines produced shipment increases with a slight increase in shipments for HP NonStop as well. Its remaining brand, AlphaServer, had a shipment decline. HP pushed its blade server shipment share just over 8% for the quarter.

Dell posted 15,8% growth for the quarter. IBM increased by 2,3% and Sun grew by 6,6%. Fujitsu/FSC was the only global vendor to decline - it shrunk by 2,6%.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), server shipments totalled 715 000 units in the first quarter of 2008, a 9,2% increase from the same period last year. Server revenue totalled $4,6bn in the first quarter of 2008, a 6,9% increase over the same quarter last year.

"We continued to see the robust growth in the first quarter of 2008 that we saw through 2007," says Errol Rasit, senior research analyst at Gartner.

"Strong demand in developing markets such as Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa and continued spend in mature markets on x86 servers bolstered growth this quarter. While x86 servers volumes grew by 10%, revenues increased by 11%."

Although RISC-Itanium Unix servers in the first quarter of 2008 achieved a 3,2% increase in revenue terms year-on-year, volumes for the year declined by 2,2%. This shows a slightly stronger demand for high-end systems. Availability of new models for both IBM system Z and FSC BS2000 in the first quarter of 2008 generated increased investment from their respective installed base.

In server shipments, HP retained the largest market share and maintained its No.1 position, with shipments increasing by 10% year-on-year. Rasit adds: "Dell outpaced its nearest rivals with 18,4% year-on-year growth. Sun Microsystems exhibited the strongest year-on-year growth of the top five server vendors at 19,3%, however, the vendor still only accounted for 4,1% share."