NT Server Makers Carve Out Niches
by: hlpinout
46892 of 46897
December 21, 1998 9:00 AM ET
Data gathered by zd market Intelligence
shows that, while the adoption of Windows
NT servers has been rapid and
broad-based, individual server makers are
finding their own market niches.
Information from the third quarter indicates
that servers that run the Windows NT
operating system have a significant presence
in businesses of all sizes. About 43 percent
of Windows NT servers are installed at very
large locations, with 1,000 or more
employees; 25 percent are installed at very
small locations, with between one and 99
employees.
Although there are more Windows NT
servers present in the larger locations, when
compensating for the difference in size of the
companies polled, the difference in the
number of servers is minimal, showing that
smaller sites are jumping on the Windows
NT bandwagon.
Yet if you take a look at where specific
Windows NT vendors' servers are installed,
there are some striking differences. The top
five vendors have spread their products
through the marketplace in distinctive ways. Where Compaq Computer
Corp.'s and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s products have primarily landed in
the largest enterprises, Dell Computer Corp.'s and Gateway Inc.'s
servers are dispersed fairly evenly across the small, medium and large
sites. IBM has its greatest concentration within the midsize sites.
These differences could have to do with each vendor's target marketing
and sales strategies, but it is impossible to conclude with certainty.
This distribution does not describe vendor market share in those
segments; it simply shows how their products are concentrated in the
segments.
With Windows NT just starting its adoption cycle and with small
businesses really coming into the mainstream, these trends bear
watching. Both the power of competition and the aggressiveness of the
small and medium-size businesses make it likely that shifts will occur in
the mix of markets targeted by server vendors.
Both small and medium-size business segments are growing swiftly, and
we expect the niches that Windows NT server vendors have created for
themselves will change in the coming months.
--ZD Market Intelligence |
