Jon Peddie Research (JPR) describes the workstation market's behavior as "normal" for the second quarter of 2011. Completing analysis of the workstation and professional graphics market for the second quarter, Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera found that after the big economic bust of two years ago, followed by an atypically strong growth pattern last year, the market has calmed down in 2011.

Q1 saw a 4.8% sequential decline, and that really indicated a flat market more than anything, as Q1 often sees a drop-off from end-of-year Q4 buying. Conversely, the second quarter normally sees a modest sequential bump, and a bump there was, as Q2 delivered 906.8 thousand workstations shipped worldwide, representing 5.4% sequential growth.

At 42.3% of units in the second quarter, HP is now the clear leader of the workstation market, further distancing itself from number two Dell, at 33.8%, according to JPR's data. But the growth story from the second quarter came from number three Lenovo, which jumped from 7.9% to 9.9% share of worldwide units

Professional graphics market sees cautious resumption of growth Tracking workstations, the closely related market for professional graphics hardware was essentially flat as well. Nvidia and AMD shipped one and a quarter million units (add-in cards and mobile GPUs), up a typical, cyclical 4.9% sequentially. Commanding 80.9% of total units, Nvidia continues to hold a dominant position in the market. But AMD has been making significant gains of late, taking control of 18.5% of units in the second quarter, a level more than doubled from its low of mid-2008.