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Euro server shipments rise 4% in Q3: Gartner

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LONDON: Shipments of large computer servers for corporate networks and the

Internet grew by four per cent in the third quarter after two quarters of

declines, research firm Gartner Dataquest said on Thursday. The number of

servers sold rose to 267,000 from 256,000, showing demand for these large

computers was only now rebounding after sluggish investments in the first half

year when corporate customers were taking a breather after heavy spending ahead

of the millennium change, analyst Karen Benson said.

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"(But) 4 percent is a far cry from the 30 per cent plus growth we

witnessed in the first half of 1999," she said.

Stronger than average growth was noted in Britain, Switzerland and the Nordic

countries.

Compaq remained market leader with a 32 per cent share, versus 34 in the

year-ago period. Of the top five, only IBM , Dell and Sun Microsystems increased

shipments year-over-year.

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IBM's share climbed to 19 per cent from 18, Dell's rose to 11 from 10 per

cent and Sun doubled its market share to 8 from 4 per cent.

Hewlett-Packard, the number three server vendor in Europe, lost one

percentage point at 13 per cent.

Instead of investing in servers with Intel microprocessors, which usually

work on Windows NT software from Microsoft , enterprises increasingly invested

in Risc/Unix servers which work on non-Microsoft software.

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These servers run on software such as Linux, Sun Solaris or other Unix

operating systems. They are mostly used to host Internet applications, as they

tend to be more reliable and easier to link up with other servers.

Shipments of Intel-type servers rose by one per cent in the third quarter,

while shipments of Risc/Unix servers soared by 43 per cent. The percentage

year-on-year rise had also been 43 per cent in the second quarter, Gartner

Dataquest said.

"Front-end Web and back-end engines are creating a strong demand for

powerful reliable Unix systems," Benson said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

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