Mike, <<<I configured a top of the line Dell server tonight. It cost $210,000. It has much more memory than the $10,000,000 mainframe. It has significantly more CPU power than the $10,000,000 mainframe. There are people that buy those kind of boxes instead of mainframes. And Intel gets all of $20,000 when someone buys that instead of a $10,000,000 mainframe.>>>
Just think, if your Dell can out perform mainframes, what could you not do with your system in the $60.2 Billion dollar server market where Dell currently has only a 7% share (my main point is that there is a bigger market out there to fight for than trying to maintain current market share wrt Intel and AMD):
Wednesday March 14 3:45 PM ET
IDC: Sun Takes Server Market; IBM Tops
Globally
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc.
(NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) has taken the top spot in the U.S. market for powerful server computers from International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), which kept its title as the main server seller worldwide, according to a widely watched International Data Corp. (IDC) report released on Wednesday.
Benchmarker IDC's revenue-based rankings confirm those by rival Gartner Dataquest and settle, for the moment, a bitter and public dispute between two companies eager
for bragging rights in the high-profile market for the computers that link networks.
IBM, the world's No. 1 computer maker, in the fourth quarter took the lead in the midrange global market for boxes running the dominant operating system, UNIX, according to IDC.
``Sun is now the No. 1 server vendor in the United States,'' Vernon Turner, IDC's vice president for worldwide servers, told Reuters. ``IBM is still by far the No. 1 server vendor worldwide.''
The relatively young market for servers running Linux (news - web sites), an operating system developed
collaboratively by software engineers worldwide, also did well, generating $1.7 billion for the server market last year, up 132 percent from 1999.
``We were surprised by the overall growth of the Linux market,'' Turner said. ``I think Microsoft will pay attention now.''
Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), the world's No. 1 software company, makes the Windows NT and Windows 2000 (news - web sites) operating systems that do especially well in the low end of the server market, where Linux has gained strength.
NT server revenue for the year rose 31 percent to $13.9 billion, an IDC statement said, while UNIX sales rose 14 percent to $29 billion.
One of the biggest changes in positioning was in the fourth quarter in the key UNIX market, where IBM shot to first from third place in the hotly contested midrange for machines costing $100,000-$1 million and took second place in UNIX overall from Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news).
Sun maintained its lead in UNIX as a whole and in the high and low ends of the category, but it dropped to third from second in the midrange. Hewlett-Packard took second place from IBM in the entry range.
The entire market for servers grew 7 percent to $60.2 billion in factory revenues last year, with fourth quarter sales up 14 percent to $16.7 billion.
In the fourth quarter, IBM led the market with 27 percent of revenues, followed by Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) at 16.34 percent; Sun Micro, 16.32; Hewlett-Packard, 14 percent; and Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news), nearly 6 percent.
For the year, IBM led with 23 percent, followed by Sun with 17 percent, Compaq with 16.5 percent, Hewlett-Packard with 15 percent and Dell with 6 percent.
Reports from all companies were positive. Hewlett-Packard trumpeted its lead for the year in UNIX mid-range sales and second place in UNIX overall.
Sun said it was the fastest growing server vendor in the industry for the year, with sales rising 42 percent, while IBM said its worldwide server revenue of $13.6 billion beat Sun's $10.3 billion, and it highlighted its strong fourth quarter for UNIX. |
