IBM, HP Remain Top Server Suppliers, Says IDC

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Global revenue from server sales grew 5.5 percent year-over-year to $11.5 billion in the third quarter of 2004, with IBM and Hewlett-Packard remaining the leading suppliers, according to the latest figures from market research firm IDC.IBM led server suppliers with sales of $3.6 billion, or 31 percent of the market, followed by Hewlett-Packard, with sales of $3.1 billion, or 26.8 percent. Sun Microsystems, Dell, and Fujitsu rounded out the top five but trailed well behind IBM and H-P, according to IDC.Volume server revenue grew 18.2% year-over-year and remain the primary growth engine for the server market overall. Revenue for midrange enterprise servers declined 10.2% year-over-year, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline as traditional midrange workloads continue to migrate to volume systems. Buoyed by renewed enterprise spending, the high-end enterprise server market grew 1.9% year-over-year, its forth consecutive quarter of positive revenue growth, said IDC."IT spending remained strong overall in the third quarter as customers continued to refresh and expand their IT infrastructures," said Matt Eastwood, program director of Global Enterprise Server Solutions at IDC, in a statement.In server operating systems, Linux continued its strong growth, posting year-over-year revenue growth of 42.6 percent and unit shipment growth of 31.7 percent. Windows also saw higher revenue and shipments, while Unix saw higher unit sales but lower revenue year-to-year.