More than two years of server revenue declines stopped

While IDC isn’t yet ready to declare a rebound in server sales, the research firm says sales are improving, thanks to a surge in x86-based Windows and Linux servers.

IDC’s report for the second quarter of 2002 says that while the largest segment was those servers running Windows, Linux-based server sales grew the fastest of any segment, at 42%. Windows-based server sales totaled $3.1 billion.

Server sales overall worldwide totaled $10.6 billion, up 0.2% over the same quarter last year. That’s the first increase in more than two years, IDC says.

IBM captured about one-third of the revenue, at $3.2 billion. The company beat out HP, whose sales amounted to $2.9 billion. Both companies saw increases over last year – IBM by 10.1%; HP by a much slower 0.4%. Sun, however, didn’t share in everyone else’s happiness; its sales declined 18.7% to $1.4 billion. Dell maintained its fourth-place ranking, increasing sales 10% to $980 million.

For the first time, servers based on x86 processors overtook Unix servers. They took in $4.5 billion, compared to Unix server sales of $4.3 billion. Linux-based servers garnered $650 million. Blade servers, which have experienced slow market adoption, counted for revenue of $119 million.

In the declining market for Unix-based servers, Sun, the leader, had sales of $1.4 billion. HP ranked second as its sales dropped 3.6% to $1.4 billion. IBM, however, saw its Unix sales increase 20.4% to $1.1 billion.