Quarterly Server Survey Optimistic

The latest results of IDC's quarterly server survey reveal a worldwide server market that continues to exhibit solid growth.

by Amy Newman
Managing Editor, ServerWatch
[December 15, 2000]

According to data for the third quarter of 2000 released Wednesday by IDC, factory revenue jumped 12 percent from 3Q99 to $15.4 billion. Shipments increased 21 percent during this same time frame.

Sequential growth for 2000 was slower, with revenue up 6 percent from 2Q00. However, the revenue growth from 2Q00 to 3Q00 represents the biggest sequential growth in the server market this year.

"One of the biggest factors driving growth in the worldwide server market is Standard Intel architecture servers, especially rack-optimized servers," said Vernon Turner, IDC's vice president of Global Enterprise Server Solutions.

According to IDC, revenue for rack-optimized servers increased almost four-fold from 3Q99. The report notes one possible reason for this explosive growth is that Y2K compliance concerns inhibited expenditures last year.

Highlights noted in the survey include:

• IBM maintained its lead in the worldwide server market, but Sun Microsystems made significant gains, growing its revenue faster than any other vendor and jumping from the market's fourth position in 3Q99 to second place in 3Q00.
• The high-end segment of the server market (systems priced at more than $1 million) increased its revenue the fastest, with year-over-year growth of 18 percent in 3Q00. The entry server market (systems priced less than $100,000) was next, with 11 percent growth. Sequential growth in this market, however, was the highest at 8 percent.
• Despite talks of decline in the Western Europe market, server revenue there increased 8 percent from 3Q99. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) was the fastest-growing region, increasing its revenue 27 percent from 3Q99.
• Linux servers are becoming increasingly popular. Revenue for this emerging operating environment increased 178 percent from 3Q99.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker provides data quarterly on the global server market. The Tracker includes statistics on quarterly shipments (ISS and upgrades) and revenue (customer and factory). It is segmented by vendor, family, model, region, operating system, price band, CPU type, and architecture.

To purchase the Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, contact Hoang Nguyen at +1 508 935 4718 or mailto:hnguyen@idc.com.

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