* Latest server revenue numbers from IDC
Recent research from IDC shows that Linux server sales grew to $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2005, marking the eleventh consecutive quarter of growth for the open source server platform.
According to the research firm, Linux server sales grew by 35% from the same quarter last year, while shipments of Linux servers were up 31%. For the first time, Linux servers accounted for more than 10% of all server sales – 10.3% of the $12.1 billion market. It was also the third consecutive quarter that Linux server sales topped $1 billion.
Compared to other server operating systems, Linux is still has a minority stake in the market. Windows accounted for 34% of all server sales, with $4.2 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2005. This tied Unix server sales, which also came in at $4.2 billion. Windows saw its sales grow 12.3% from the first quarter of 2004, while Unix growth was more moderate at 2.8%.
As for server hardware architecture, Intel server revenue grew 13.2% to $5.7 billion worldwide while unit shipments grew 14.2% to nearly 1.5 million servers worldwide. Dell, HP, Fujitsu/FSC and Sun all outpaced the category’s growth rate, posting year-over-year revenue growth in excess of 15%.
While HP and IBM were tied as the overall top sellers of servers in general, HP was the clear leader in Linux-based server sales, with 27.7% of the $1.1 billion in Linux revenue. IBM, which essentially started the ball rolling of Linux on corporate-focused, factory-built Linux servers, was second with 19.8%.
