At face value, the global server market slumped in the second quarter of 2012, according to IDC’s newest Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. Factory revenue fell for the third consecutive quarter, totaling $ 12.6 billion, a 4.8% year-over-year decline. Unit shipments were also off for the first time in almost three years, dropping 3.6%. Among major vendors, only Dell appears to have bucked the downward trend. Nevertheless, a closer look at the data suggests matters are less grim than they appear.

IDC research manager Jed Scaramella said in a phone interview that declines were foreseeable because 2011 set a challenging year-over-year benchmark. Previous market growth, he said, has cooled because many of the companies that were recently purchasing servers are now in the middle of refresh cycles.
Network Computing