Server spending up after two years

THE Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan)—henceforth referred to as APEJ—server market reached 737,628 units worth US$6.2 billion in 2003 compared with 602,898 units for a total value of US$5.9 billion in 2002, according to IDC’s Enterprise Server Tracker, Q4 2003. Server spending increased in APEJ in 2003 on an annual basis for the first time since the dotcom meltdown in 2001, while unit shipments increased a healthy 22 percent after two years of low single-digit increases in unit shipments. In 2003, server spending growth was fuelled by strong demand in the Greater China and ASEAN/India regions, which experienced 10 percent and 11 percent spending increases respectively compared to 2002.

Although the PRC’s 13 percent growth remained pivotal to Greater China server market expansion, the 7 percent increase in spending in Taiwan certainly helped to further bolster the overall market. The government, manufacturing and education segments were key drivers of server demand in the Greater China region, while the financial services segment was the cornerstone of strong server demand in the ASEAN/India region in 2003.

“The Asia/Pacific server market outlook remains extremely positive with most regional economies riding the export boom underpinned by the global economic recovery,” says Rajnish Arora, associate director, Enterprise Systems & Workstations, IDC Asia/Pacific. “The telecom and manufacturing segments are expected to help sustain the growth momentum in 2004.”

Among all the countries in the APEJ region, the server market in Singapore declined the most in 2003 with unit shipments and spending contracting 10 percent compared to 2002. However, the good news was that the Singapore server market rebounded in Q4 2003 with unit shipments and spending growing 19 percent and 6.5 percent respectively compared to Q4 2002. Server spending in Singapore declined for four consecutive quarters on a year-on-year basis prior to Q4 2003.

The x86 server APEJ market grew 22 percent in unit shipments and 6.5 percent in spending terms in 2003 compared to 2002. Among the top five markets, x86 server shipments grew a blistering 57 percent in India apart from 21 percent increases in the PRC and Australia.

— Reuters