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SAN JOSE, CA -- Despite strong growth of mainframe and supercomputers, the Latin America server market experienced a decline in both shipments and revenue in the third quarter of 2001, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). In the third quarter of 2001, Latin America server shipments declined 12.4 percent, while server revenue declined 4.7 percent. The server industry was impacted by slowed sales in the low-end segment. Servers priced below $5,000 represented 69.8 percent of total shipments in the region. In the third quarter of 2001, shipments for these systems declined 12.3 percent, and revenue dropped 23.5 percent. Meanwhile, supercomputer and mainframe revenue increased 265.2 percent and 16.7 percent, while shipments increased 55.2 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively. "Sales to small and some medium-sized businesses have decreased because of deteriorating economic conditions, thus affecting sales of servers priced below $5,000. These companies are more sensitive to short-term fluctuations in the business cycle. However, international branded vendors increased their market share, as they offered complete solutions through partnerships with software companies and better technical support." said Lillian Alvarado, senior industry analyst covering servers for Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Latin America group. "Long-term investment plans of the large corporate sector have not been affected as strongly, as can be seen in the resilience of shipments of mainframes and supercomputers." Even after a slight decline in shipments in the third quarter, Compaq managed to strongly increase its market share as the No. 1 vendor based on shipments. IBM held onto the No. 1 position based on revenue accounting for 45.5 percent of the market. IBM and Hewlett-Packard each experienced an increase in revenue in the third quarter of 2001, which was attributed to their success in the high-end system segments. Dell experienced the strongest growth rate in shipments, but declined 42.4 percent in revenue in the Latin America server market in the third quarter, indicating a different mix in its server sales when compared to the same period in 2000 and its price points aggressiveness. Brazil continued to lead all countries in the region with 16,973 units shipped in the third quarter of 2001. This is a 16.4 percent decrease from the same time last year. Mexico was the No. 2 country with 8,949 shipments, a 4.5 percent decrease, and Argentina was the No. 3 country in the region with shipments of 4,914, a decrease of 16.4 percent. This information is produced by Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Latin America group. This group provides research on key aspects of the dynamic PC, server and printer hardware markets in Latin America. The focus is on regional and country issues in the top eight Latin American markets and the Rest of Latin America (ROLA) category, where Central American and Caribbean countries are grouped. For more information visit www.gartner.com