Worldwide factory revenue for the high performance computing (HPC) technical server market declined modestly year-over-year by -2,6% to $2,45-billion in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), down from $2,51-billion in the same period of 2013.
This is according to the newly released International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide High-Performance Technical Server QView.
The modest second quarter decline was due to the relatively low supercomputer sales in 2Q14. The second quarter market dynamics were driven by the continued recovery of the bottom half of the HPC market, consisting of systems sold for under $250 000. Systems at these price points were hit especially hard by the global economic recession that began in 2008, as many of these discretionary purchases were postponed or cancelled. These sales began to recover in first quarter of 2013.
The brightest spot in 2Q14 was the divisional segment for HPC systems selling for between $250 000 and $499 000. Revenue in this segment jumped 11,3% year-over-year to $388,7-million.
The departmental segment for systems priced from $100 000 to $249 000 expanded by 0,9% year-over-year in the second quarter to $892,2-million. Together, the workgroup and departmental segments made up 54,5% of all HPC server systems revenue in the quarter. IDC has continued its practice of corroborating the recovery trend in the lower half of the market by conducting several thousand survey calls with HPC buyers and end users.
In the second quarter, the high-end supercomputers segment for systems sold for $500 000 and up accounted for 29,7% of the overall market, or $725,1-million. The divisional segment ($250 000 to $499 000 price band) represented 15 ,9% of total HPC systems revenue, or $388,7-million, an 11,3% increase over the second quarter of 2013.
Shipments increased 6,6% year-over-year to 33 277 units, reflecting the growth of lower-priced systems that sell in higher volume than large supercomputers. Unit sales declined slightly (-0,9%) compared to the first quarter of 2014.
“The top half of the HPC market, especially supercomputer systems sold for $500,000 and up, expanded rapidly right through the global economic recession and experienced record-setting growth in 2012. We said earlier that we did not expect the supercomputers segment to maintain that steep growth curve in 2013, although there will be other growth periods in the future,” says Earl Joseph, IDC programme voce-president for technical computing.
“In the first and second quarters of 2014, revenue growth has shifted to sub-$250 000 systems as the lower half of the market continues to rebound from the global economic recession.”
HP and IBM remained the worldwide market leaders, capturing 32,4% and 24,6% of overall revenue share, respectively.
Dell maintained its strong third place position with 16,3% of global revenue.
NEC, Bull, Dawning, and SGI all made strong year-over year revenue gains during the second quarter of 2014, driven by the acceptance of large systems. Several vendors in the combined “others” category saw significant regional sales, including China’s Inspur, driving up the quarterly growth of the “others” category by 12,8%.