Beancounters at Gartner claim server sales in Q1 took a massive nosedive, and that the drop was the worst since it started tracking the market.

Gartner claims revenues dropped to $10.1 billion, with shipments falling by 24.2 for a total of 1.72 million units. IDC also reported a 24.5 revenue drop to $9.9 billion and a 26.5 percent shipment drop to 1.5 million units.

"The significant decline that occurred in the fourth quarter of last year has extended into the beginning of this year," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "While this was not unexpected, the severity of the decline was greater than predicted on a worldwide level. The ongoing weakness of the global economy affected all server segments."

Market researchers don't expect sales to pick up soon, and the server market will remain weak throughout 2009. The second quarter will be just as bad, and Gartner believes the market won't return to a position of growth beforel 2010.

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