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Workstations continue to outperform PCs in Q4’15: Jon Peddie Research

TIBURON, Calif— March 03, 2016:The workstation proved once again it is not slave to the same market forces dragging down the broader PC markets. Where industry reports indicate double-digit percentage decline in PC shipments in 2015, research firm and market watcher Jon Peddie Research reports that the workstation market fell only 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 (year over ...

Robert Dow

TIBURON, Calif— March 03, 2016:The workstation proved once again it is not slave to the same market forces dragging down the broader PC markets. Where industry reports indicate double-digit percentage decline in PC shipments in 2015, research firm and market watcher Jon Peddie Research reports that the workstation market fell only 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 (year over year), and about the same for 2015 overall. All told, the industry shipped around 1.04 million units in Q4'15.

Why would two sister platforms experience such different market dynamics? Senior analyst and JPR Workstation Report author, Alex Herrera explains. “PC and workstation products are built off much of the same core technologies, but the workstation is designed and built with different priorities in mind: maximum reliability and application-optimized performance for high-demand, visual applications. Many mainstream PC users have found their primary applications still run fine on machines three or more years old — or even run acceptably on phones or tablets — so there's little motivation to pay for a new one. But the same is not at all true for users in areas like CAD, digital media and entertainment, geoscience, and finance. These buyers need and value the return a new, higher-performance machine can provide in increased productivity.”

HP stiffens its hold on the top spot

Market shares for the big three workstation OEMs — HP, Dell and Lenovo — don't tend to fluctuate a great deal quarter to quarter. In the big picture, however, there had been a couple of notable stories over the past few years: Lenovo climbing slowly but steadily, and Dell stabilizing after a long decline at the hands of HP. With a seemingly clearer focus and more precise execution in wake of its privatization, Dell's workstation business had not only successfully stopped the decline, it had been managing to pull back a bit of share over time, from a low of 30.7% up to 35.9% in Q3'15. HP threw a damper on Dell's comeback run in the fourth quarter, however, tacking on 1.5 points while Dell's dropped by over two. Also impeding Dell's progress was Lenovo, which added 1.2 points to post its highest ever worldwide share of 15.1%. Fujitsu contributed another 2.9% in the quarter, while a host of smaller players accounted for the remaining 9.5%.

About the JPR's Workstation Report Series

Now in its twelfth year, The JPR 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:Two extensive semi-annual reports, comprehensively assessing the state of the workstation and professional graphics industries
The service includes two semi-annual revisions of the JPR Workstation Report, a complete reference manual on the workstation and professional graphics businesses. Anything you want to know about the markets, technologies and industry players can be found in this all-inclusive report.

Four quarterly market bulletins covering both workstations and professional graphics
Also included in a year's subscription are four quarterly market bulletins, each around 40 to 50 pages and timed to highlight the previous quarter's (and year's) results in the workstation and professional graphics hardware markets. Each quarterly comes with a companion XLS file, with a comprehensive array of tables and figures that go into more detail than the basic text of the bulletin. The market quarterlies are released around eight weeks after the close of the previous quarter.

A full annual subscription (two semi-annual reports and four quarterly bulletins) to the JPR Workstation Report Series is $8,000. A half-year subscription (one semi-annual and two quarterly reports) is also available for $5,000. A single issue of the report is available for $3500.

About Jon Peddie Research
Dr. Jon Peddie has been active in the graphics and multimedia fields for more than 30 years. Jon Peddie Research is a technically oriented multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm. Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies in a variety of fields including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development. Jon Peddie Research's AIB Report is a quarterly report focused on the market activity of PC graphics controllers for notebook and desktop computing.

Company Contact:
Robert Dow, Jon Peddie Research
415/435-9368
[email protected]

Media Contact:
Carol Warren, Crew Communications
714.890.4500
[email protected]

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Jon Peddie's Market Watch is a trademark of Jon Peddie Research. All other tradenames and trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
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