Revenues in global server sales remained steady in the third quarter from the previous three months, but declined 5.6 percent from the third quarter 2001, according to International Data Corp.
In a report issued on Wednesday, the Framingham, Mass., research firm said revenues for the third quarter came in at $10.6 billion, and that the 5.6 percent drop—from $11.2 billion in last years third quarter—was the smallest year-to-year decline in two years.
IDC analysts said the numbers indicate that the server market is stabilizing and predicted that the fourth quarter would show continued improvement.
IDC said the greatest growth was in the entry-level server space—servers that cost $100,000 or less—which saw a 5 percent revenue jump over the same period last year.
IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., whose server revenue dropped only 0.4 percent over last year, held the overall server lead with 29.8 percent of the market, while Hewlett-Packard Co.—which had virtually tied with IBM after its merger with Compaq Computer Corp. in May—was second with a 27.2 percent share.
Sun Microsystems Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., garnered 12.1 percent market share, followed by Dell Computer Corp., of Round Rock, Texas, at 8.7 percent.
HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., held a 32.9 percent share of the Unix server market, with Sun a close second with 30.4 percent, according to IDC.
The firm also said that Linux-based and Windows-based servers are gaining traction in a market dominated by Unix servers.