Gus,
I was away for the last 2 1/2 weeks and have not read your latest posts.
You may have already commented on this report, but just in case here it is.
biz.yahoo.com
EMC's market share slipping; IBM sees gains - IDC
(UPDATE: Adds further detail, comment from IBM and EMC)
By Tim McLaughlin
BOSTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC - news), the world's top maker of data-storage systems, is expected to lose 6.2 percentage points of market share this year in external storage hardware sales, according to a forecast by research firm IDC.
The decline at Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC comes as archrival IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) picks up market share amid a sharp downturn in spending on machines that store e-mail, credit card bills and other vital corporate information, IDC said in a report that will be studied closely by Wall Street.
EMC's market share for external hardware storage systems is expected to slip to 25.3 percent this year, compared with 31.5 percent in 2000, according to IDC. EMC still holds a commanding lead over its closest competitor in an external storage market that's expected to drop to $14.9 billion this year from $17.7 billion in 2000.
IBM will edge out Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) for the No. 2 spot in that segment with a 11.6 percent share this year, up from 6.8 percent in 2000, according to IDC. Compaq's market share is expected to move up slightly to 11 percent, up from 10 percent.
IBM's storage hardware sales are getting a boost from its Shark product, which is being plugged into mainframe computers and other data-storage environments.
``EMC was growing in leaps and bounds because they were taking mainframe storage from IBM,'' said Bob Samson, IBM's vice president of worldwide storage sales and operations. ``We have a lot more work to do, but (this report) is a good endorsement of our strategy.''
Michael Gallant, an EMC spokesman, said the mainframe market for storage hardware is ``rapidly shrinking.'' He also said storage sales in the mainframe market are price sensitive and take less software, which has been a key driver behind EMC's profit margins.
He pointed to EMC's surging performance for network attached storage, which will nearly 14 percent this year.
IDC expects EMC to overtake Network Appliance Inc. (NasdaqNM:NTAP - news) in that market this year with $777.2 million in revenue, or 42 percent of the network attached storage market.
Network Appliance, which controlled 45 percent of that market last year, is expected to drop to a 32.5 percent share, according to IDC. |
