Worldwide server revenue remained flat at US$12 billion in the first three months of the year, bucking several consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth, research firm Gartner said Tuesday.While revenue remained flat, the total number of servers sold increased, reflecting the continuing shift in spending on lower-end x86 servers. Worldwide shipments increased about 14 percent, from 1.7 million to 2 million in the quarter. Unix server revenue fell about 5 percent, and shipments declined about 1 percent. Blade server shipments, however, were up 46 percent, with IBM leading that market.While IBM maintained its edge over Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the market leader in worldwide server revenue, IBM’s revenue dipped about 4 percent in the quarter. Slower sales of IBM’s Unix, mainframe and minicomputer servers were offset by an 11 percent jump in x86 server revenue. Sun Microsystems meanwhile saw its server revenue rise for the first time in nearly two years, driven by sales of its UltraSparc and Opteron-based servers. And Dell uncharacteristically stumbled a bit in the quarter, with a 2 percent dip in revenue.Dell shipped 7 percent more servers in the quarter at 431,000 units, falling in second place behind HP, which shipped about 538,000. HP’s 8 percent shipment growth was led by a 30 percent increase in shipments of Integrity servers. IBM, which fell in line behind HP and shipped about 299,000 servers in the quarter, saw a 19 percent boost in shipments. Rival research firm IDC, meanwhile, reported Wednesday that based on its research methodology, the worldwide server market declined nearly 2 percent to about $12 billion in the first quarter of 2006 from the same quarter last year.This marked the first quarter of revenue decline after about 10 quarters of year-over-year growth and one quarter of flat growth, in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to IDC’s research.While the x86 server market continued to grow, IDC researchers reported that year-over-year growth slowed to about 6 percent in the first quarter of 2006, compared with 13 percent year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2005.-Shelley Solheim, IDG News ServiceFor related news coverage, read AMD Winning Commercial Market Share.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content feature 7 ways to spot hidden IT talent within your ranks Your organization has hidden IT superstars in the making — both within and outside IT. Here’s how to find and elevate them for maximum impact. By John Edwards Jun 07, 2023 8 mins Staff Management feature The NBA’s digital transformation is a game-changer The National Basketball Association’s move to Azure cloud is helping improve fan experience and in-game performance due to analytics- and AI-assisted tools aimed at unlocking data’s full potential. By Paula Rooney Jun 07, 2023 9 mins Microsoft Azure Media and Entertainment Industry Digital Transformation case study How Palladium targets tech to better serve the business Palladium Hotel Group has prioritized strategies surrounding its digital transformation, with a focus on two primary objectives: to improve the business and better customize the customer experience. By Nuria Cordon Jun 07, 2023 4 mins CIO Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Saudi Vision 2030: Why the Kingdom is becoming a hub in EdTech education By Andrea Benito Jun 07, 2023 5 mins Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe