HELSINKI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard closed in on IBM in server sales by value in 2007 and increased its lead in shipment volumes, research firm Gartner said on Friday.

IBM's server sales grew one percent to $17 billion last year, giving it a market share of 31.1 percent, down from 32 percent in 2006, while HP increased market share to 28.3 percent, thanks to sales growth of 9 percent.

HP sold 2.64 million servers in 2007, up 17 percent from a year before, raising its share of market volume to 29.8 percent. The closest contenders -- Dell, IBM and Sun-- all lost market share when measured by volume.

Worldwide server shipments in 2007 increased 7.4 percent helped by the strong growth at HP, while global market revenues grew 3.8 percent in 2007, Gartner said.

"The fourth quarter climbed almost 11 percent in shipments and just under 3 percent in revenues in spite of the fact that there have been concerns about a slowdown due to downturns in certain economic sectors of particular geographies," Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner said.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Quentin Bryar)

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