IDC: Server sales bouncing back
Global server sales in the fourth quarter are still down from a year ago, but are showing signs of life, according to research firm IDC. IBM has the market share lead, followed by HP and Dell.
In a report released on Wednesday, IDC noted some positive indicators in the server market. For example, worldwide factory revenue was $13bn (£8.7bn) in the fourth quarter of 2009, down 3.9 percent from a year ago, the research firm said. But while that revenue figure represented the sixth straight quarter of annual declines, it was the second quarter of sequential growth.
In addition, shipments increased 1.9 percent to 1.9 million units, and volume systems had revenue growth of 9.9 percent, compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Midrange server revenue fell 5.3 percent, and the high-end market saw revenue fall 23.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
IDC noted that the fourth quarter marked the first time in more than a year that any category of server systems showed revenue growth. It predicted that customers will start buying again in 2010.
For more on this story, see Server sales show signs of life in the fourth quarter; IBM remains top dog on ZDNet.com.