2nd- and 3rd-Place Dell and Lenovo Scraped Out Market-Share Gains in the Second Quarter

HP is still the leader in workstation sales, but a reinvigorated Dell is coming on strong, according to new figures from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) that show Dell pulling within three percentage points of the leader in market share by units. That's Dell's highest share of the workstation market since the end of 2010, JPR says.

The next-biggest vendor is Lenovo, which sits at a distant number three but is growing quickly, thanks mostly to big sales in the Chinese market. When it comes to GPUs, Nvidia remains dominant, with more than 80 percent of 1.15 million GPU units shipped in the quarter, JPR said.

Workstation OEM Market Shares in Q2 2015 (by units)

Source: Jon Peddie Research

After 2015 got off to a slow start, workstation shipments have recovered. JPR says shipments grew to 1.02 million workstations in the second quarter, a sequential gain of 11.5% over the first quarter. That was good news for vendors who may have worried that workstation sales were starting a long decline like that seen in the broader market for desktop PCs.

"As a tool for professionals, the workstation won't be replaced by an alternative device like a phone or tablet, as has been the case in the consumer space," said analyst Alex Herrera, author of the company's Workstation Report. "Serving demanding customers in need of any and all increases in performance they can get, workstations shouldn't see replacement cycles dragging out further, at least not nearly to the extent they are in mainstream PC markets."

With the imminent arrival of Intel's Skylake processor architecture, the second half of the year should be healthy, JPR said.

JPR's Workstation Report is published twice a year, with quarterly updates detailing results for each calendar quarter.