Unix servers up 2.7%, Linux servers up 35.6%

Unix server revenues were $5.2 bln in Q4 2004, increasing 2.7% year over year against Q4 2003. Additionally, on a sequential basis, Unix servers grew dramatically in Q4 2004, adding more than $1 bln in quarterly revenue. This sharp growth reflects continued investment in the worldwide installed base of Unix servers, many of which support mission-critical workloads. Importantly, Unix server unit shipments also grew, reflecting additional footprints across all server-class segments. IBM regained the lead in Unix servers worldwide with 36.3% share in terms of factory revenue. HP took the #2 spot with 27.6% market share and Sun had 25.3% market share, based on factory revenue. Additionally, both IBM and Sun experienced year-over-year unit shipment growth in Q4 2004.

Linux servers generated $1.3 bln in quarterly revenue, representing 9.0% of worldwide server revenue. It was also the second sequential quarter of $1 bln-plus quarterly revenue. Overall, Linux server revenue grew 35.6% year over year, while unit shipments grew 29.1% year over year. HP led the market with 26% revenue share, followed by IBM and Dell with 23.5% and 15.8% share, respectively.