IDC Research: IGEL Jumps To No. 3 Position In US Thin Client Market Share Battle

IGEL's secure end point software charge is paying off with the company's US thin client shipments growing 35 percent in 2017 for a third place finish behind Dell and HP Inc., according to a newly released data from market researcher IDC.

"With the introduction of new U.S. management in 2016 and a push toward establishing five customer support hubs across the U.S., IGEL has seen its market position rise from seventh in 2015 to third in 2017," said the IDC report.

[Related: Partners: IGEL Software Offensive Driving Big Sales Gains, Secure Endpoint Market Taking Off]

That third place market position is solely based on thin client hardware shipments and does not even include the 57,000 software licenses that IGEL shipped in the US in 2017 which now accounts for the majority of US sales.

IGEL shipped 57,000 software units in 2017, up from just 12,700 in 2016.

The company's thin client hardware unit shipments, meanwhile, were up 35 percent in 2017 to 44,600 units compared with 33,000 units in 2016, according to IDC.
In the US market, IGEL has surpassed Samsung, VXL, NComputing, and DevonIT in thin client shipments.

"IGEL is showing strong growth from both a hardware and software perspective in the US," said Michael Ceroici, a research analyst for European Multicloud Infrastructure for IDC in an interview with CRN.

The IDC report says IGEL's focus on securing devices has inspired customer confidence as "demonstrated through their rapid Spectre and Meltdown patching."

What's more, the report cites the "seeming neglect of thin client portfolios by major vendors" as leaving an opening for thin client vendors such as IGEL to grab share through new releases.

In 2017, Dell finished No 1 in US thin client shipments at 523,000 units down 1.5 percent from 2016, while HP finished No. 2 with 456,000 units, up seven percent from 2016, according to IDC.

"Comparing the performance of IGEL and its larger competitors reveals diverging trends, with the larger vendors on a down trend for several years," said Ceroici in the IDC report. "IGEL's sole focus on thin client solutions is a factor, but it is important not to downplay its traditionally wide device support and software innovations in recent years."

IGEL partners, for their part, credit those software innovations and an all out channel offensive engineered by IGEL North America President and CEO Jed Ayres, a 20 year channel savvy technology veteran who took the helm of the US business two years ago.

Michael Hogan, president of Hogan Consulting Group, a national end point solution provider headquartered in Chesterton, Ind.,said Ayres has delivered lock, stock and barrel on his pledge to bring big sales growth and profits to partners with the IGEL software strategy. "Jed has given us the confidence to sell IGEL," said Hogan. "Jed changed the thin client game for us"

Changed indeed. Hogan Consulting Group's IGEL sales soared from several hundred thousand dollars in 2016 to $2 million in 2017 and are on track to double to $4 million in 2018, said Hogan. "We've already done $2 million in IGEL and we have a strong pipeline," he said referring to IGEL's market momentum."From what I see the sky is the limit with IGEL."

Hogan said Ayres has helped transform IGEL into a software market leader with its 64 bit Linux OS, end point management software solution and its UD Pocket product which has won wide acclaim for enabling customers to avoid millions of dollars in hardware upgrades with a secure end point solution.

"This is about software," said Hogan. "There is nothing special about thin client hardware. This is all about software, management and security. It's a great story about securing data and enabling mobility. This is the culmination of a lot of different technologies coming together."

The beauty of the IGEL software is that it runs any of the thin client devices on the market, said Hogan. "It would be interesting to see how many other thin client devices from competitors are being managed using the IGEL software converter and UD Pocket," he said. "The reality is that the IGEL software is making all of this happen."

Ayres said the IGEL's Linux based software sales momentum is continuing in the first quarter with nearly 400 percent software sales growth "The appetite for a secure, light manageable Linux OS in this environment is enormous," said Ayres. "We have rock solid technology- a sixth generation Linux OS with a fastidious focus on delivering a secure, highly curated OS with the best functionality out of the box."

IGEL, which has added 60 employees in the US in the last several years, is also benefitting from its 100 percent commitment to channel partners, said Ayres.
"The best Citrix and VMware resellers are all leading with IGEL, that is what is driving this story," Ayres said. "I have been selling technology for 20 years and have never seen a perfect storm like this of technology, partnering and market conditions. This is a Cinderella story."