Factory revenue in the worldwide server market increased 15.3% to $15bn in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to $13bn in the same period last year, according to market research company IDC.
Server unit shipments increased 6.1% year over year to 2.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010.
For the full year 2010, worldwide server revenue increased 11.4% to $48.1bn and worldwide unit shipments increased 15.3% to 7.6 million units.
IDC said volume systems and high-end enterprise segment revenue increased 13.4% and 29.1%, respectively, while midrange server segment revenue declined 2.1%, compared to the same period a year ago.
According to IDC, IBM held the top spot in the worldwide server market with 37.4% market share in the factory revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010, led by strong improvement in demand for its System z mainframe systems and continued demand for x86-based System x servers in the quarter
HP held the second place with 29.9% share as factory revenue increased 13.2% year-over-year.
Dell maintained the third spot with 12.6% market share with revenue increasing 26.8% year-over-year.
Sun held the number 4 position with 5.9% market share and Fujitsu gained fifth position holding 3.6% market share in 4Q10.
IDC said that Microsoft Windows server demand was positively impacted by the x86 server market refresh, as hardware revenue increased 16.8% year over year.
UNIX server revenue was relatively flat with a 0.4% decrease when compared to 4Q09, as the demand for the platform stabilised in the quarter.
In a related report last week, a study by IT research and advisory firm Gartner had said the worldwide server revenue had increased 6.4% to $14.7bn in Q4 2010. It had also said that IBM held the highest market share revenue in the worldwide server market with 35.5%, a lead of 5.1% over second-place HP.
