The U.S. server market continues to grow, and so does business for IBM and Dell Inc.
In numbers released Tuesday by research firm Gartner Inc., IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., continued to lead the pack in revenue generated from U.S. server sales, garnering almost $1.5 billion in the first quarter. The number marked a 21.8 percent increase from the same time period a year ago.
Dell, of Round Rock, was the only other major vendor that saw revenue grow over that time, generating $662 million for 24.2 percent growth. Dell, which overtook Sun Microsystems Inc. for the No. 3 spot on the revenue chart, also was the only major vendor to see revenue grow between the fourth quarter 2003 and the traditionally weaker first quarter, jumping 3.8 percent.
Hewlett-Packard Co., of Palo Alto, Calif., generated more than $1 billion in server revenue last quarter, a 13.2 percent drop from the first quarter of 2003. Sun, of Santa Clara, Calif., saw its revenue numbers drop 16.7 percent, to $520 million.
Overall, server revenue in the United States grew 7 percent between the first quarter 2003 and last quarter, to more than $4.4 billion.
Dell continued to top the list in units shipped, with 192,660 units going out last quarter, a 42.5 percent growth over the same period last year and an 11.3 percent increase from the fourth quarter.
HP was second with 146,496 units shipped, followed by IBM with 79,943 units, Sun with 34,474 and Gateway Inc. with 3,450.
In all, 659,147 servers were shipped in the United States in the first quarter, a 32.4 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the report. Gartner, of Stamford, Conn., is expected to release worldwide server numbers later Tuesday.
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