Server revenue declines as shipments rise in 2002

Declining revenue from servers hurt most vendors in 2002, but the future looks brighter based on strong fourth-quarter revenue growth and increasing sales of Linux servers, according to market research released to vendors Monday by Dataquest.

Declining revenue from servers hurt most vendors in 2002, but the future looks brighter based on strong fourth-quarter revenue growth and increasing sales of Linux servers, according to market research released to vendors Monday by Dataquest, a unit of Gartner.

IBM managed to pick up market share points at the expense of rivals HP and Sun, and Dell also grew its market share for the full year. The numbers for the top four companies include Unix servers as well as servers running Windows or Linux on Intel’s processors.

IBM took in $13.4 billion from the sales of its servers in 2002, down slightly from its 2001 revenue of $13.6 billion, but good for 31.1% of the market. IBM’s revenue figures include sales of its lucrative iSeries servers, the old AS/400, and its zSeries mainframes. HP was second in 2002 with $10.8 billion in server sales in 2002, but posted a 13% decline in revenue and a 1.4% decline in market share for the full year.

Overall revenue from Sun’s servers declined 10% from $7.25 billion in 2001 to $6.5 billion in 2002. Dell was the only vendor to increase revenue for all of its servers year-over-year, coming in fourth overall with $3.2 billion in revenue in 2002, up 6%.

In the fourth quarter of 2002, all four vendors increased their revenue compared to the third quarter of 2002. IBM led the way with $4.1 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, trailed by HP with $3 billion. IBM and HP increased their revenue 20% and 17%, respectively, paving the way for overall revenue growth of 12% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2001, fourth-quarter 2002 revenue was down 3% overall, and only IBM and Dell were able to increase revenue.

For the full year, overall revenue from servers came in at $43 billion, down 8% from 2001.

Unix servers from IBM, HP, and Sun are generally more expensive than their Intel-based counterparts, but Intel servers make up the majority of all systems out on the market. Revenue from Unix servers has declined as IT managers switch to lower-cost servers running Windows or Linux, with IT budget pressures and the comparable performance of networked Intel servers forcing companies to rethink their server strategy.

Server shipments actually grew 4.2% in 2002, according to research released in January by Dataquest. This signals increased sales of less expensive Intel servers, and falling prices among server vendors as the industry tries to stimulate demand.

For 2002, revenue from Unix servers declined 11%, from $19.4 billion in 2001 to $17.2 billion in 2002. Revenue from Intel servers also declined 5%, but IBM and Dell were able to increase their revenue from Intel servers, while HP lost ground.

HP continues to take in the most revenue from Intel servers, selling $5.1 billion worth of those servers in 2002, but it lost 3.2% in market share to IBM and Dell in 2002. Sun does not sell Intel-based servers, and remains the leader among the Unix vendors despite a 10% decline in revenue.

Linux still has a way to go on the desktop, but the server vendors are embracing Linux. Revenue from Linux servers increased 63% to $2 billion in 2002, and IBM led the pack with $759 million in revenue. Dell and HP increased their revenue from Linux servers, but lost market share to IBM.