Global sales of storage gear up in Q4

SAN FRANCISCO: Worldwide revenue from the sale of data storage equipment rose 12 percent to $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, as Hewlett-Packard Co. edged past International Business Machines Corp. for the lead in sales of disk storage systems for 2002.

HP nudged out IBM, with 21 percent of the global disk storage market and 2002 revenue of $4.28 billion, due largely to HP's acquisition of Compaq in May of last year, according to figures published on Friday by market research firm International Data Corp., or IDC.

IBM had global disk storage revenue of $3.99 billion in 2002, giving it 20 percent of that market.

For the fourth quarter, HP and IBM finished in a dead heat, each tied with 25 percent of the market for disk storage. HP had fourth-quarter revenue of $1.37 billion and IBM $1.34 billion, IDC said.

With the strong sequential growth, full-year 2002 revenue was better than expected, declining 15 percent from 2001, compared with a forecasted decline of 21 percent.

"We expect to see a return to more normal seasonal changes as companies have already made their major adjustments to storage spending," said John McArthur, head of storage research at IDC.

Competition was tough during the quarter, as represented by the tie between HP and IBM, IDC said. There was also a three-way tie for the No. 4 position between Sun Microsystems Inc., Dell Computer Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., although Sun had the strongest growth among the three with 17 percent sequential growth in the fourth quarter from the third quarter.

EMC Corp. held the No. 3 spot, with 11 percent market share, an increase of 1 percent from the previous quarter. EMC maintained its lead in the total network storage market, which is network-attached storage combined with open storage area networks, with 28 percent revenue share.

In the total external storage system market, revenue increase 12 percent in the fourth quarter from the third, and HP kept its No. 1 position in that market with 21 percent revenue market share, IDC said. IBM and EMC, tied for second, each with 17 percent revenue share.

In the external RAID market, on which EMC is most targeted, EMC and HP tied for the No. 1 position, each with 19 percent of the revenue in that market, IDC said.

© Reuters