"The Middle East and Africa accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide server revenue. Server spending in the region declined in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown, however growth has been steady in consecutive years," said Nandita Iyer, research analyst at Gartner. "Despite economic unrest in certain countries in early 2011, the Middle East market ended on a positive note. The oil and gas sector continue to remain the major drivers of IT spend in this region, however other verticals like information technology, banking and financial services, telecom, tourism, and retail will further drive growth as the governments in these countries continue to achieve economic diversification."

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Dell and IBM had double-digit year-over-year shipment growth, while HP, Oracle and Fujitsu experienced declines (see Table 1). In terms of revenue, Dell and Fujitsu recorded double-digit growth rates (see Table 2) with Dell benefitting from strong performance in the x86 segment. Overall, RISC and Itanium Unix revenue in MEA declined 16.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. IBM leads this segment despite a decline of 15.2 percent. HP moved to the No. 2 position and recorded the sharpest decline of 31.2 percent.

"We expect growth to continue throughout 2012 in the MEA region with cloud and virtualization playing key roles in driving this growth." said Ms Iyer. "The MEA market is expect to grow 8 percent by revenue and 6 percent by shipment in 2012 The Middle East region will benefit from the diversification strategy with the governments trying to promote alternative businesses, and the development of local organizations will help in driving overall IT spending."

Table 1

Middle East & Africa Server Vendor Shipment Estimates, 4Q11  (Units)

Source: Gartner (March 2012)

Table 2

Middle East & Africa Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q11 (Thousands of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (March 2012)

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the x86 segment in MEA performed better than the overall server market growth rate with shipments increasing 11.9 percent and revenue up 13.6 percent year-on-year. x86-based server sales represented 97 percent of total shipments in 4Q11, whilst its revenue share increased to 70 percent in the quarter. Cloud and virtualization adoption is gaining a great deal of attention in Middle East markets. Gartner analysts said demand for richer configurations of rack optimized and blade servers will boost growth in the x86 segment. The x86 blade segment also had positive year-over-year growth with shipments and revenue in this segment increasing 11.3 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively.

The mainframe platform and RISC/IA64 servers saw revenue decline 15.6 percent. RISC/Itanium Unix servers and mainframes continued to be the weak spot caused by longer sales cycles and product refreshes. The RISC/Itanium UNIX segment in particular is increasingly facing longer term challenges as many users are looking at alternative platforms.

Amongst the MEA countries, all the major countries such as South Africa and Turkey had positive shipment growth, while in terms of revenue only Turkey posted  positive growth year-on-year. The rest of MEA grew shipments and revenue by 5.4 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

Additional information is available to subscribers of Gartner's Servers Quarterly Statistics Worldwide program. This program provides worldwide market size and share data by vendor revenue and unit shipments. Segments include: region, vendor, vendor brand, sub brand, CPU type, CPU group, Max CPU, platform, price band, operating systems and distribution channels.

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organisations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

Media contact:
Sony Shetty
Gartner
Tel: +91 9820900036
sony.shetty@gartner.com

© Press Release 2012