Hewlett-Packard Co extended its lead over Dell Inc in sales of business server computers as it shipped more units in the United States, market researcher Gartner Inc said on Tuesday.
HP's share of first-quarter server shipments grew three percentage points to 30 per cent in the first quarter, a level it last reached in 2002, Gartner said. Dell's share slipped to 21.1 per cent of the worldwide total from 21.7 per cent a year earlier, according to the survey.
Overall, shipments of server computers increased 6 per cent from the year-earlier period to 2.1 million units while server revenue rose 4.5 per cent to $12.9 billion, Gartner estimated.
Gartner said shipments of servers based on Intel Corp. compatible microprocessors returned to growth in the first quarter after a lull in the fourth quarter. Shipments of servers using the Unix operating system fell 15.5 per cent while revenue from Unix server sales dipped 1.5 per cent.
"The competition remains intense in this portion of the market as it continues to face declines," Gartner research vice-president Jeffrey Hewitt said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}"The competition remains intense in this portion of the market as it continues to face declines," Gartner research vice-president Jeffrey Hewitt said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}International Business Machines Corp. ranked third in the survey with an estimated 14 per cent of worldwide shipments, down from 15 per cent in the year-earlier period.
Fujitsu Ltd and its joint venture with Germany's Siemens AG ranked a distant fourth with 3.8 per cent of shipments, unchanged from a year earlier.
Sun Microsystems Inc had the steepest market-share decline, falling from 4.4 per cent to 3.7 per cent and putting it in fifth place in the Gartner survey.
Sun's share of Unix-based server shipments fell to just over half of the total from 53.3 per cent in the year-earlier period, while IBM's share increased to 25.8 per cent from 24 per cent in a shrinking market, Gartner estimated.