Common wisdom is that dot-bombs and reduced IT budgets are going to cut into the growth of the network plumbing and network storage areas this year. But Dataquest has just come out with a report on 4Q server sales that implies growth of the internet hasn't slowed. Coupling this with EMC's anecdotal evidence that network memory is not a discretionary item gives me hope that ntap and cisco might surprise Mr. Market when they report.
biz.yahoo.com
Monday February 5, 4:57 pm Eastern Time
Fourth-quarter server computer sales strong-Dataquest
By Nicole Volpe
NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Fourth-quarter sales of the powerful computers that are the backbone of the Web were strong in the fourth quarter, even as the tech sector slumped and many Internet companies collapsed, according to preliminary data from a top market research firm.
Worldwide, sales of servers -- the ``back office'' computers that run networks of other computers -- grew 21 percent from the fourth quarter of 1999 with a total of 1.1 million units shipped, Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group, said in a statement.
``Despite concerns that the U.S. economic slowdown may have on the server industry, the U.S. server market performed quite well in the fourth quarter of 2000,'' the report said.
The strong fourth-quarter growth pushed 2000 server shipments to 3.9 million units, an increase of 14 percent over 1999, Dataquest said.
Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) and Dell Computer Corp.
(NasdaqNM:DELL - news) showed the strongest unit increases among the top-tier vendors in 2000, with growth rates of 61 and 42 percent, respectively.
And for the first time, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) surpassed the one million mark in annual unit shipments, Dataquest said. That allowed Compaq to retain the No. 1 market share position on a units-shipped basis.
Compaq has 27 percent of the server market, down from 28 percent last year. It is followed by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), which has 16.7 percent of the server market, also off somewhat from its market share of 17.3 percent last year.
Compaq and IBM both grew at a rate of nearly 11 percent over the year before, Dataquest said.
Faster-growing rivals Dell and Sun both made market share gains. Dell now has about 14.6 percent of the server market on a units shipped basis, compared with 11.7 percent. Sun has 7.3 percent, up from 5.2 percent for 1999.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news) showed only 4.2 percent growth, with its market share falling to 11.2 percent from 12.3 percent. |
