IBM Leads In The Unix Server Market

By Mike Sachoff
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2009-09-29

Revenue in the global server market declined 30.1 percent year-over-year to $9.8 billion in the second quarter of 2009 (2Q09), according to a new report from IDC.

This is the fourth consecutive quarter of revenue decline and the lowest quarterly server revenue since IDC began tracking the server market on a quarterly basis back in 1996. Server unit shipments fell 30.4 percent year-over-year in 2Q09, accelerating from the 26.5 percent decline experienced in 1Q09 and representing the largest year-over-year quarterly server unit decline.

"Over the past four quarters, the worldwide server market has experienced significant revenue deceleration in all geographic regions as the economic recession has deepened," said Matt Eastwood, group vice president of Enterprise Platforms at IDC. "Fewer servers have been shipped over the past four quarters than at any time since 2005 and it is clear that the worldwide server installed base is aging rapidly.

"In the weeks and months ahead, IDC believes that IT customers around the globe will begin to focus on the future once again, making strategic compute platform decisions for the next business cycle, and driving more predictable server demand as market conditions stabilize in the second half of 2009."

Unix servers had a 30.9 percent revenue decline when compared with 2Q08. Worldwide Unix revenues were $3.1 billion for the quarter, representing 31.5 percent of quarterly server spending.

IBM gained 7.4 points of the share year-over-year and holds the 2Q09 leadership position in the Unix server market, posting 41.4 percent share in this segment, followed by Sun Microsystems (27.3%) and Hewlett Packard (24.8%) respectively.

Linux server revenue declined 28.9% year-over-year to $1.3 billion in the quarter. Linux servers now represent 13.8% of all server revenue, up slightly from 13.5% a year ago.

About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.