Worldwide server revenue and shipments plummeted about 24% in the first quarter, with all the top five vendors experiencing double-digit declines.

The decreases were the highest ever suffered by the industry on a year-over-year basis, Gartner said. All server segments, x86 and Unix, saw declines in the ongoing economic recession.

"While this was not unexpected, the severity of the decline was greater than predicted on a worldwide level," Gartner analyst Jeffrey Hewitt said in a statement.

Global server revenue fell 24% from the same period a year ago to $10.2 billion, and shipments dropped 24.2% to 1.7 million units, Gartner said. All the top five vendors saw double-digit declines in revenue and shipments.

In terms of revenue, IBM continued to lead the market, followed by Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun Microsystems, and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens, respectively. In shipments, HP remained at the top, with Dell and IBM second and third, respectively. Sun and Fujitsu held the same position as with revenue.

For the remainder of the year, Gartner expected to server market to remain weak. The market is not expected to resume growth until next year, the analyst firm said.

Gartner's latest server numbers followed less than a week after IDC reported that the market fell 24.5% in the first quarter to $9.9 billion, the lowest level in at least a dozen years. IDC said HP and IBM tied for the top spot.

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