IBM Server Sales Rise As HP's And Sun's Fall, Report ShowsIBM Server Sales Rise As HP's And Sun's Fall, Report Shows

IBM's worldwide server sales in its second quarter of 2001 grew 10.4% over unit sales in the same quarter last year, according to a Dataquest report released Monday. During that time, Hewlett-Packard's sales were down 10.6% and Sun Microsystems' slipped 15.4%. In the United States alone, IBM server sales were up 13.9%, HP server sales dropped 25.6%, and Sun server sales fell 20.8%.

Of course, IBM has four server lines and, according to Dataquest, the Unix-based eServer pSeries servers, in addition to the zSeries, did well last quarter and helped IBM close the market-share gap that has existed for years with Sun and HP.

Dataquest analyst Shahin Naftchi says part of IBM's success in the Unix market can be attributed to problems that HP and Sun are having. "The economic conditions have customers turning away from expensive products," Naftchi says. HP's high-end Superdome system didn't take off as the vendor expected, and it still has problems with channel conflicts, adds Naftchi. She says Sun is still working out technical kinks with its high-end UltraSparc III chip and struggles to keep up with IBM in services and support. "IT executives go with the pSeries," Naftchi says, "because of the customer relationship with IBM."