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The workstation market takes another sizeable step forward in Q4’09

Posted by Webmaster on March 1st 2010 | Discuss
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More good news emanated from the workstation market in Q4’09, as the industry successfully plowed ahead, anxious to put the misery of late 2008 and early 2009 further behind.

Q3’09 wasn’t a gangbuster quarter, but then it wasn’t supposed to be. What the quarter was expected to do was affirm two things: one, That the market did indeed bottom back around Q1’09 and two, that the Q2’09 uptick wasn’t an aberration. And on those counts, the third quarter of 2009 delivered as promised, offering up a stronger quarter than Q2.

We expected another round of modest improvement in Q4, building off the momentum of Q3, and we got it. All told, the industry shipped 716.9 thousand workstations in the fourth quarter, resulting in a more robust 11.2% sequential increase (and a far more tolerable 6.2% year-over-year decline).

Dell manages to climb back up to parity with HP

In Q3’09, HP overtook Dell in workstation unit volume, staking its claim as the new workstation market leader. Clearly, Dell hadn’t taken its demotion lightly, instead digging in its heels to raise its fourth quarter unit share back up 1.5 points, in the process moving back into a virtual dead heat with HP.

The professional graphics market unexpectedly hot in Q4’09

Simply put, the professional graphics market in the fourth quarter posted results significantly hotter than expected, with units (mobiles included) up 53.3% year-over-year and revenue (add-in cards only) close behind at 41.1%.

The market for professional graphics parallels the workstation market, with the former’s performance often providing an effective leading indicator for the latter’s. And that relationship bodes well for workstations in 2010. Because if the numbers for workstations in Q1’10 look anything like those posted by professional graphics in Q4’09, they should exceed all but the most optimistic of OEMs’ expectations.