IBM’s Unix servers make inroads into HP, Sun market

NEW DELHI: IBM's Unix servers grew 57 per cent by revenue in Asia Pacific and

gained 7.2 per cent points in market share year-on-year in the first quarter of

2001, outpacing Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard according to International

Data Corporation (IDC).

In Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, International Data Corporation (IDC) said

IBM emerged as the leader in Unix servers with revenues of $203.37 million and

market share of 30.4 per cent. IDC also announced that IBM has grown 34.5 per

cent in ASEAN/SA, faster than any of our major competitors and in the process

gained 3.4 per cent share and it continues the fantastic momentum gained in the

ASEAN/SA region in 2000.

The decrease in the market size in Q1 2000 and the increase of IBM's revenue

in Q1 2001 meant that the overall market grew by 12 per cent as compared to the

flat growth reported earlier by IDC.

Leading the way for IBM's impressive growth rate in Asia Pacific, were the

two largest markets in the region: Japan and Greater China (China, Hong Kong and

Taiwan). According to IDC, IBM in Japan grew its Unix server revenue by 54.5 per

cent in the first quarter and gained market share by 4.3 per cent points in Q1

in 2001 over 2000 in the same period, while both HP and Sun experienced revenue

decline.

In Greater China, IBM retained its position as the number one player in the

Unix server market from Q4 2001, IDC said. IBM grew 154 per cent by revenue and

gained 19 per cent points of Unix server market share over Q1 2000 to reach 43.2

per cent in Q1 2001, which was well ahead of Sun at number two position, IDC

said.

In the People's Republic of China (PRC) alone, IBM grew 262 per cent by

revenue in 2001 over 2000 (Q1), which was at least six times the growth

experienced by any other vendor in the top five, according to IDC. As a result,

IBM gained 24 per cent points of revenue market share in Q1 2001 in PRC to reach

a market share of 44 percent.

"IBM has done well in aligning its strengths to the market

opportunity," said Avneesh Saxena, Associate Director, Enterprise Servers

& Workstations group at IDC. "Its aggressive marketing coupled with

improving price/performances has helped in propelling its Unix server

revenue."

IBM India (country manager of system sales) Basu Hurkadli, attributed IBM's

growth to the launch of IBM's eServer line last year and the unified effort of

the extended IBM team in the region, which includes IBM Business Partners,

systems integrators and software vendors.

"Coupled with our technology leadership and our commitment to open

standards, customers now know that we provide IBM eServer <1> pSeries,

industry-leading Unix servers, with dramatically better performance and

reliability than competing systems at a Lower cost," Basu said.