The number of servers shipped by systems vendor Oracle in Europe fell by more than a third (35.3%) in the last quarter, analyst company Gartner has claimed.

The IT analyst group’s latest figures show that the company’s Sun Microsystems hardware division shifted just over 10,000 units in the third quarter of 2010, compared with more than 15,600 in the year- ago quarter.

Oracle, better known for its business applications and relational database technology, only entered the hardware business when it acquired Sun at the start of this year. Its server market share stands at 1.7%, says Gartner. “Following the acquisition of Sun’s hardware business, the company now faces the challenge of preventing further declines in the hardware segment,” said Gartner research director Adrian O’Connell.

Oracle was the only major vendor to lose market share in the quarter. Hewlett-Packard grew its share 9%, Dell by 23%, IBM 10% and Fujitsu 6%.