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SAN JOSE, Calif.
— The global market for computer servers crashed in
the second quarter of this year, with sales falling 30
percent to the lowest level in 13 years, according to
the industry research firm IDC, although analysts for
the company said they're seeing signs of recovery
recently.
"This
is the fourth consecutive quarter of revenue decline and
the lowest quarterly server revenue since IDC began
tracking the server market on a quarterly basis in
1996," the company said in a statement, while
announcing that overall sales of servers around the
world fell to
$9.8 billion
in the second quarter, compared with
$14 billion
a year earlier.
Some
computer makers did better than others: IDC estimated
that industry leader
IBM
increased its share of the market to 34.5 percent, up
from 32.7 percent a year ago, even as its server sales
fell 26 percent to
$3.4 billion
.
Hewlett-Packard
was in second place with 28.5 percent of the market,
roughly the same as a year ago, as its revenue from
servers fell 30 percent to
$2.8 billion
. HP was the market leader in the first quarter of 2009;
the two companies generally alternate in that position.
Sun Microsystems
remained in fourth place behind
Dell
, but
Sun's
server revenue fell to
$981 million
, down 37 percent from a year ago, more than any other
major vendor.
Sun's
share of the server market dropped 1.1 percentage
points, to 10 percent. Both
IBM
and HP have publicly announced campaigns to win over
Sun's
customers since the announcement in the spring that Sun
will be acquired by Oracle, a major software vendor that
wasn't previously known for hardware expertise.
While
IBM
was the leading seller of high-end Unix servers, HP was
the leading seller of workhorse x86-style servers and
lower-cost blade servers.
IBM
managed to increase its share in all three categories,
however.
IDC
analysts said they believe overall sales will improve
this fall, as customers start replacing older computer
equipment with new models built around a new generation
of processors that
Intel
and rival AMD introduced in recent months.
Intel
recently raised its sales forecast for the fall quarter,
citing stronger than expected demand for its chips. IDC
analyst
Jim Harrington
said he's heard similar reports from component
manufacturers and equipment sellers.
Many
customers are facing the need to replace aging equipment
after delaying purchases for the past year, Harrington
said. In addition, he said, many buyers decided to hold
off purchases earlier this year because they knew that
computer makers would be introducing new models over the
summer.
"If
you want the most bang for your buck, you want to wait
for the new servers that have more performance and other
advantages," he said.
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