Dell EMC Is Still No. 1, But …

Dell EMC is still the largest storage vendor despite a huge drop in first quarter 2017 storage sales.

IDC reported Dell EMC's total enterprise storage system sales in the first quarter at $2 billion, down 14.6 percent over its first quarter 2016 sales, which still gave it a 21.5 percent market share. Dell EMC's worldwide external enterprise storage systems sales dropped 16 percent to $1.4 billion, which was still 27.2 percent of the market.

Dell EMC, in an unattributed statement emailed to CRN, said the company is optimistic given recent customer engagements and its recent product refresh.

"In light of Dell EMC’s move to a new fiscal reporting calendar that has skewed IDC’s reported numbers for our storage business, coupled with IDC’s reported 2.8% decrease in the overall market for Q1, the dip in Dell EMC’s calendar Q1’17 market share was anticipated. We expect IDC’s numbers will normalize in future quarterly market share reports," the company wrote.