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Sales Of NT/Intel-Based Servers Jump
(03/26/99, 5:13 p.m. ET)
By Mary Jander, Data Communications
The popularity of servers based on Windows NT and Intel processors is growing, despite the fact that sales are down for servers overall, according to a study released this week by International Data Corp.
The study says that during the fourth quarter of 1998, worldwide server revenues were $16.2 billion, down 4 percent from the same period in 1997. But per-unit shipments of servers increased 22 percent.
IDC said this can be traced to the increased popularity of comparatively cheap servers based on Intel processors, sales of which jumped 15 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with just a 3 percent increase in sales of high-end RISC-based servers running Unix. Further, revenue for servers running Windows NT increased by 28 percent.
"The overall trend is that companies are getting more bang for the buck on Intel-based platforms running NT, so they're buying more of them instead of investing in high-end products," said Amir Ahari, senior analyst at IDC. He added that ease of use, familiarity with the Windows NT operating system, and availability of NT applications are helping popularize low-end servers. This holds true even though server vendors are having to tweak their wares to overcome what some call the inherent unreliability of NT, which many users claim results in 20 percent downtime.
At the same time, vendors are finding it profitable to create smaller servers that sell well. "Departmental NT-based servers are getting to be commodities," said Greg Bennett, product marketing manager at Dell Computer in Round Rock, Texas.
And according to IDC's Steve Josselyn, research director for commercial systems and servers, Asian market woes and focus on mainframe sales have hindered growth in servers from the likes of Hitachi and Fujitsu. Also, IBM has been selling its new high-end servers at a discount in order to make up for being late to market compared to its competitors, a move that's further reduced high-end server profit margins. |
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