Dell rebounding in the workstation market.(WORKSTATIONS)

If you think the workstation is some last-century relic whose fortunes in the market have long since faded, think again. As Jon Peddle Research again finds with its second-quarter 2007 tabulations, the workstation market is more than simply surviving, it's prospering.

Setting another high (by JPR records), Q2 '07 saw a total of 718,000 branded workstations shipped, representing robust 17.1% year-to-year growth. Revenue was up to $1.7 billion, delivering a slightly more modest 15.8% increase, as ASPs took a 3.4% (sequential) drop.

The close-tracking market for professional graphics also hit another high, with sales of 931,900 units accounting for $300.3 million. Nvidia again took the lion's share with 79% of total workstation-class units (including add-in cards and mobile GPUs) and 88% of revenue (street value of add-in cards).

Dell's once dominant lead in workstations had slipped, from 46% in Q3 '04 down to a low of 38.7% in Q1 '06. HP, meanwhile, had found its stride, slowly but steadily gaining ground, from 26.7% to 28.8% over the same period. Combine Dell's turn down with HP's turn up, and HP had narrowed the gap to the number-one vendor significantly, trailing by around 10% in Q1 '06, compared to about 19% in Q1 '05.

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Dell not oniy stabilized share, but added a few points starting in mid-'06, thanks in part to I ntel's revitalized Core and (especially) Xeon platform. But Dell taking share didn't mean HP was losing it. Far from it. While Dell has rebounded up from that 38.7% low up to 42.4% ...