“Steady as she goes” for the workstation market in Q4’11

The workstation market proceeded ahead in the fourth quarter of 2011, completing a long climb back from the 2009 depths of the global economic recession that had slashed its shipments by over 40 percent. But that fourth quarter advance was more a case of "steady as she goes" than "full speed ahead".

The market's fourth quarter followed a familiar storyline we've been laying out over the previous few quarters. The market has not only fully recovered from the recession, it's showing continued stability and some undeniable signs of strength. But at the same time, there remain scattered pockets of concern, as the market has yet to resume the pace of growth it sustained back in the years 2005 through 2008.

In the third quarter, the market for the first time exceeded one million units shipped, clear evidence it had more than made up for the steep decline of late 2008 and 2009. Q4 couldn't quite cross that million unit mark, though it came close. All told, around 998.9 thousand workstations shipped worldwide, representing a healthy — but by no means torrid  –  10.5% year-over-year gain.

HP firmly on top, but the company' spin-off debacle of Q3'11 appeared to dent sales in Q4

Responsible for 41.3% of units shipped in the fourth quarter, HP now holds unquestioned control over the workstation market, clearly separating itself from Dell at 33.4%. But the company  suffered an uncharacteristic and self-imposed setback back in the third quarter, when then-CEO Leo Apotheker put into doubt the future of HP workstations by essentially putting its parent business unit, the Personal Systems Group, on the trading block. And that raised the question as to whether management's flakiness might be reflected in a market share dip, even a very temporary one.

That does appear to be the case, as HP's share bucked previous trends and slipped in the fourth quarter. Still, the firm doesn't think HP's done any long-term damage with its about-face. Considering the company's continuing aggressive posture in the marketplace — witness the impressive new Z1 all-in-one workstation — HP's decline should be limited to a short-term bump in the road.

AMD's momentum in professional graphics stalls, as Nvidia drops the hammer (again)

With a few solid, if not spectacular, recent GPU generations under its belt, AMD had been able to steal several share points from market leader Nvidia. While the magnitude of AMD's gain, and corresponding Nvidia decline, was by no means game-changing, it was statistically significant. The company's FirePro brand had been taking its market share steadily upward,  topping out at 19.5% in the third quarter of 2011.

However, it appears the limited momentum AMD's been able to muster ran out of steam in Q4. Not only did AMD's FirePro brand not gain on Nvidia's Quadro, it took a small step backward, coming in at 18.4%.

  • Methodology
    • Some – but not all - white-box coverage
    • Effective Q3'11, Lenovo inherits NEC workstation share
  • It's steady as she goes for the workstation market in Q4'11
    • Workstation shares by machine class
      • The distribution of mobile versus deskside in workstations is very different than in broader PC markets
    • Workstation shares by vendor
    • HP firmly on top, but the company's spin-off debacle of Q3'11 appeared to dent sales in Q48
    • Thanks in part to its investment in NEC, Lenovo jumps up a notch on the workstation totem pole
      • Vendor shares per segment
    • Intel stands alone as CPU supplier to the workstation industry
      • What happened to AMD CPUs for workstations?
      • Single versus multi-socket CPU
    • Windows dominates, with Linux holding minority share
    • Tier 1 distribution of workstations by geography
      • EMEA and APexJ: breakdowns by sub-region
  • Full-year calendar 2011 results for workstations
  • Professional graphics shipments for Q4'11 come up short … but there may be good reason
    • ASPs remain stable
    • Professional graphics hardware market breakdown by product class
    • AMD's momentum stalls
  • Full-year calendar 2011 results for professional graphics hardware
  • Outlook on the workstation and professional graphics markets
  • Appendix A: Workstation vendor shares per EMEA sub-region

Tables

  • Table 1 Total workstation market revenue (in $M)
  • Table 2 Typical Q4'11 characteristics of desktop workstation classes
  • Table 3 Typical Q4'11 characteristics of mobile workstation classes
  • Table 4 History of workstation unit share by vendor
  • Table 5 Historical share of Windows and Linux in x86 based workstations (Apple platforms not included)
  • Table 6 Total workstations shipped by year (units and revenue)
  • Table 7 Yearly workstation ASPs (in dollars)
  • Table 8 Growth (loss) of Tier 1 vendors’ unit shares
  • Table 9 Worldwide shipments of professional graphics (K units, including mobiles)
  • Table 10 Worldwide quarterly revenue of professional graphics add-in cards ($M, no mobiles) 31
  • Table 11 Professional graphics hardware classes and price bands
  • Table 12 Professional graphics market share history by vendor (units)
  • Table 13 Professional graphics add-in card (no mobiles) revenue history by vendor
  • Table 14 Professional graphics hardware, yearly totals
  • Table 15 Professional graphics add-in card ASPs, yearly

Figures

  • Figure 1 Workstation ASPs over time
  • Figure 2 History of overall workstation unit distribution, by class
  • Figure 3 Unlike broader PC market, deskbound workstations still outsell mobiles ~3:1
  • Figure 4 In firm control as market leader, HP is further separating itself from #2 Dell
  • Figure 5 Shares of mobile workstation units, by vendor
  • Figure 6 Shares of Entry class workstation units, by vendor
  • Figure 7 Shares of Mid-range workstation units, by vendor
  • Figure 8 Intel shipments into Tier 1 workstation market by processor (unit share of Intel platform by processor)
  • Figure 9 The rise and fall of Opteron in the workstation platform
  • Figure 10 Share of dual-capable (not necessarily dual-populated) workstations as a percentage of all deskbound systems
  • Figure 11 Geographic distribution (by unit shipments) over time
  • Figure 12 Tier 1 vendor shares of U.S. over time
  • Figure 13 Tier 1 vendor shares of EMEA over time
  • Figure 14 Tier 1 vendor shares of Asia/Pac (excluding Japan) over time
  • Figure 15 Tier 1 vendor shares of Japan region time
  • Figure 16 Tier 1 vendor shares of Rest of World (ROW) region over time
  • Figure 17 EMEA breakdown by sub-region
  • Figure 18 Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) breakdown by sub-region
  • Figure 19 China sub-region, breakout by vendor
  • Figure 20 India sub-region, breakout by vendor
  • Figure 21 Rest of APexJ sub-region, breakout by vendor
  • Figure 22 Overall yearly workstation unit share by vendor
  • Figure 23 Worldwide shipments of professional graphics (K units, including mobiles)
  • Figure 24 Professional graphics card ASPs, by class over time
  • Figure 25 Professional graphics unit share history, by class

Workstation report

Description

Now in its twelfth year, JPR’s Workstation Report - Professional Computing Markets and Technologies has established itself as the essential reference guide for hardware and software vendors and suppliers serving the workstation and professional graphics markets.

The JPR Workstation Report series includes a breadth of market data and research, including six total reports issued over the year. All in all, a subscription entitles subscribers to:

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