Lenovo executives could be forgiven for having second thoughts as they wait to get their hands on IBM’s x86 server business, following a new report from Gartner which shows Big Blue’s sales train heading south yet again.

Gartner says IBM’s server business continued its slump in Q1 of 2014, and is now estimating a 27.8 percent year-on-year shipment decline to around 116,000 systems. This comes just after IBM announced its server revenues had tanked by 25.6 percent to $2.2 billion.

Rival analyst firm IDC came suspiciously close to those scores in its own estimations, estimating a 25.4 percent drop in revenues to $2.08 billion, which would leave IBM with a 19.1 percent market share. Overall, IDC says the global server market was down 2.2 percent revenue-wise in Q1, raking in $10.89 billion. That’s actually good news, because it shows the rate of decline is actually slowing down, though not by much.

Getting in between the segments, the biggest surprise was that global x86 server revenues actually jumped by 4.9 percent to $8.9 billion. That’s because unit sales rose by 2.5 percent to 2.1 million servers sold for the quarter, says IDC. Leading this segment is HP and Dell, two companies that are perhaps a little more willing to cut costs during tough times – HP led the way with a 30 percent market share, followed by Dell with 22 percent.

But the picture was less than pretty in the non-x86 space, with revenues dropping by 25.2 percent to $2 billion. That’s eleven consecutive quarters in which revenues have fallen – bad news for IBM of course, which remains king of this segment with a massive 57 percent share of its total revenues.

“Demand for IBM’s x86-based Systems x servers and System z mainframes declined sharply,” said IDC in a statement that sums up the misery for IBM.

The server market’s rapid descent into oblivion is especially interesting in light of Lenovo’s recent decision to buy IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion. The deal is yet to be completed though, as US regulators still need to give their approval.

The last time the System X business posted any growth was way back in Q3 of 2011, and so the industry will be waiting with baited breath to see if Lenovo can pull of a similar turnaround to what it did with IBM’s failing PC business. That remains to be seen, but if China’s recent crackdown on US tech providers gathers steam, and if Lenovo CEO Yuan Yangqing’s bold pronouncement that his company can grow “no matter what” is true, we could be in for a surprise.

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