Wednesday March 31, 6:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Continues Meteoric Rise in the Server Market;
Grew Total Server Market Factory Revenues Faster
Than its Closest Competitors
IDC 1998 Reports Shows Increased Revenues and Market Share in All Server Categories
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - news) announced today that in
the calendar year 1998 it continued to hold the number one spot in the worldwide UNIX (R) server segment and grew faster
than its closest rivals in the total server market.
According to the final year-end data from International Data Corporation (IDC), Sun led in the worldwide UNIX server
market and widened its lead -- at the expense of its competitors. In 1998, Sun claimed 24 percent market share of the
worldwide UNIX server factory revenue and 26 percent market share of the worldwide UNIX server shipments, contrasted to
HP's 22 percent market share in worldwide UNIX factory revenue and 16 percent in worldwide UNIX server shipments.
In addition, IDC identified Sun as one of the fastest growing server vendors in the industry. The IDC report on the total server
market (UNIX, Microsoft Windows NT and other platforms) shows that worldwide, Sun grew its server revenues faster than
its main competitors -- HP, IBM, and Compaq/DEC. In total server factory revenue, Sun grew 29 percent in 1998, while HP
only achieved 15 percent growth. IBM increased its revenues only by one percent, and Compaq/DEC showed a one percent
decline.
The latest data provides evidence that the award-winning Sun Enterprise (TM) server family, running the robust Solaris
Operating Environment (TM) software and paired with the family of Sun StorEdge (TM) disk arrays, is consistently winning
and keeping satisfied customers who require highly scalable, available and reliable server solutions for the management of
business-critical enterprise computing applications.
''It is no surprise that IDC's report shows that Sun continues to eat up market share in UNIX servers,'' said John Shoemaker,
vice president and general manager of Enterprise Desktops and Server Systems, Sun Microsystems. ''The UNIX server
market has been standardizing on Sun over the last few years. What is truly exciting about IDC's 1998 numbers is that the Sun
Enterprise servers are continuing to gain market share in the overall server market.''
Sun Enterprise 10000 Server Gaining Market Share in the High-End
IDC's report shows impressive gains for Sun in the high-end server market (systems priced on average above $1 million),
indicating Sun's increasing presence in the corporate data center -- a space traditionally occupied by mainframe systems.
Sun more than doubled its factory revenue in the high-end worldwide UNIX server market while IBM achieved 11 percent
growth. With shipments of the Sun Enterprise 10000 system to 46 countries worldwide, Sun took the lead in worldwide UNIX
unit shipments in the high-end, garnering 42 percent of the market share in that category.
The IDC report also shows that Sun more than doubled its factory revenues in the total worldwide high-end server market from
the Sun Enterprise 10000 server, also known as Starfire (TM), while IBM achieved a modest three percent growth. In total
high-end server shipments, Sun increased its share by seven percentage points while IBM lost market share.
Sun Up-Levels Success in Midrange Server Market
The worldwide midrange server market (systems priced from $100,000 to $1,000,000) grew significantly in 1998, according
to the IDC report, as customers sought to add greater scalability to database and Internet applications. Locking up 28 percent
of the worldwide market share in UNIX server shipments, Sun extended its lead over competitors such as IBM and Compaq
with the Sun Enterprise mid-range servers. In worldwide UNIX midrange factory revenue, Sun claimed a 19 percent market
share -- beating out other competitors such as IBM and Compaq/DEC.
In the total worldwide midrange server market, Sun significantly increased its presence with 41 percent growth in unit
shipments. HP experienced 39 percent growth in terms of shipments while IBM had a 12 percent decline in shipments for the
total midrange server market.
Sun's gains in midrange UNIX and total server market share follow performance boosts and additions of new features such as
Dynamic Reconfiguration (DR) and Alternate Pathing (AP), capabilities originally offered in the Sun Enterprise 10000 system.
These features enable customers to complete system maintenance procedures without disrupting the production environment,
minimizing planned and unplanned system downtime. With the exception of Sun's Starfire server, this capability is not available
in any other server in the same class, although it can be found in considerably more expensive mainframes and fault-tolerant
systems.
Sun Eats Away at HP and Compaq Revenues in Entry-Server Market
In 1998, Sun made headway in the entry-level server market (systems priced under $100,000) by leading the pack in the
worldwide UNIX space in both unit shipments and factory revenue, with 25 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
Sun also achieved double digit growth in the total worldwide entry-level server market with a 16 percent increase in factory
revenue, while Hewlett-Packard and Compaq showed five percent and six percent declines in entry server factory revenues.
Sun increased its total worldwide unit shipments among all entry servers by 40 percent, demonstrating customers' growing need
for the reliability and scalability of Sun's SPARC (TM) Platform Edition of Solaris in the workgroup environment.
Much of this success is due to Sun's commitment to expanding its already successful server product line. In 1998, the company
built on its award-winning workgroup systems, Sun Enterprise 2 and Sun Enterprise 450 servers, by adding the Sun Enterprise
250 server, which features remote management capabilities that are attractive for ISP and remote office applications. The
company also introduced the Sun Enterprise 5S and Sun Enterprise 10S servers -- while both systems combine Sun's proven
enterprise network computing expertise with a low-cost design, the Sun Enterprise 5S system sets a new entry price point in
the industry for a UNIX server.
About the Sun Enterprise Server Family
The Sun Enterprise server family is a single, binary-compatible product line featuring a range of servers that scale from one to
64 processors and are designed for workgroup, departmental and data center computing environments. Sun Enterprise servers
provide an ideal platform for a variety of applications, including enterprise resource planning, electronic commerce, data
warehousing, Internet/Intranet and customer management systems.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, ''The Network Is The Computer(TM),'' has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to
its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and
expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150
countries and on the World Wide Web at sun.com.
NOTE: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Sun Enterprise, Solaris, Sun StorEdge, ''The Network Is The Computer,''
Solaris Operating Environment, Starfire, and HotJava are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in
the United States and in other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries exclusively
licensed through X/OpenCompany, Ltd. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered
trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are
based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web
using a tool such as Netscape Navigator or Sun's HotJava(TM) browser. Type sun.com at the URL prompt.
SOURCE: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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