According to IDC?s EMEA Quarterly Server Tracker, factory revenue in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) server market recorded growth of 3.0% in Q4 2004 over Q3 2004, when measured in current dollars. While this was a softer end to the year which started on a very strong note, overall growth for 2004 over 2003 was still positive at close to 8% in current dollars, though in euros revenue growth remained slightly negative. System shipments increased by 15.3% from Q4 2003 to Q4 2004, to just below 605,000 units.
Overall, in Q4 2004, EMEA server shipments continued to benefit from the weakening of the US dollar, renewed spending in large IT infrastructure projects, ongoing demand in the SMB sector, and strong revenue growth in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Increasing competition, lower component costs, and the dollar depreciation encouraged continued aggressive pricing, which also contributed to sustaining market growth. Average end-user prices nudged up sequentially, but were down from Q4 2003 by just over 11% to $8,884 in dollar terms, and by nearly 19% to 6,857 euros.