Business Slowdown Hits Latin America Server Market
Following a tough year throughout the region, the Latin America server market suffered declines in shipments and revenue in 2002, according to Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Inc. Server shipments in Latin America declined 15.6 percent in 2002, while server revenue dropped 19.2 percent from 2001.
"While mostly large corporations are keeping up with their IT purchasing plans, medium and small-sized businesses are strongly affected by the contraction of the economies," said Lillian Alvarado, senior industry analyst covering servers for Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Latin America group.
Hewlett-Packard maintained the No. 1 position in server shipments, despite a 23.6 percent decline in shipments. Dell experienced the strongest growth rate in server shipments, as it grew 29.5 percent in 2002. Dell had strong growth in every country in the region, and increased its penetration in all segments of the market, including small business and government.
Argentina experienced a tremendous decline in shipments of 76.8 percent and 66.8 percent in revenue due to the financial crisis from which it is still suffering. Brazil also suffered negative growth in shipments and revenue as elections created wide speculation, which reflected on the volatility of the exchange rate toward the end of the year, making purchases of imported equipment more expensive. Conditions in Venezuela also deteriorated during the fourth quarter of 2002, as social unrest virtually paralyzed the country affecting shipments and revenue.
Reports can be accessed on the Internet at www.gartner.com.