Worldwide and U.S. Server 2008 Vendor Shares

This IDC study provides our server market share data based on the server taxonomy that was first introduced in the first half of 2003 and was updated again last year. Specifically, this study presents the latest worldwide and U.S. views based on actual annual data through year-end 2008. Worldwide server factory revenue market declined 3.3% during the year, dropping from $55.1 billion in 2007 to $53.3 billion in 2008.

"This market retraction was driven mostly by difficult market conditions as a result of ongoing economic uncertainty and the financial system meltdown," said Steve Josselyn, research director of IDC's Enterprise Platforms group. "While the U.S. market was experiencing many of these issues throughout 2008, some regions did not begin to see the impact of the global economic downturn until the second half of the year. It is much more clear at this point that the fallout from the housing crisis and mortgage crisis, both of which were centered in the United States in the early stages, has spread across the globe with far-reaching effects that will be felt for an extended period of time."