IBM regains server market share lead

INDUSTRY SHAMANS at Gartner Group have rejiggered industry numbers for the first quarter, cutting estimates of server revenue growth from 4.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent and handing first place in global server market share back to IBM from HP.

Citing updated guidance and additional data analysis, Gartner reduced its May estimate saying that IBM garnered 29.4 per cent of first quarter global server revenue while HP came in second with 28.3 per cent. In its initial estimate, Gartner reported that HP had overtaken IBM in server revenue during the first quarter.

Worldwide server market revenue was $13.3 billion in the first quarter, compared with $13 billion in the first quarter of last year.

The other top five server vendors and their market shares were Dell with 12.3 per cent, Sun with 9.9 per cent and Fujitsu Siemens with 5.5 per cent.

HP retained the lead in server shipments with 30.1 per cent. Dell came in second with 22.7 per cent of units shipped, and IBM was third with 13.3 per cent, followed by Sun with 3.7 per cent and Fujitsu Siemens with 3.5 per cent. Global server shipments overall were 2.3 million units, up 7.6 per cent in the first quarter from last year.

IBM ships fewer servers than HP and Dell, but it generates higher revenue per server shipped because it sells more high-end, big-iron mainframe systems and fewer lower priced big-tin and rackmount commodity systems. µ

L'Inq
Informationweek