V3.co.uk

Merger serves HP top spot

HP takes lead in western European server market

  • Karl Flinders
0 Comments

Hewlett Packard (HP) has become the top selling server vendor in western europe for the first time, according to the latest figures from analyst IDC.

HP's recent acquisition of Compaq has enabled it to dislodge IBM from the top spot. The vendor took a 33 per cent share of the market in the three months to the end of June, compared to 29 per cent for Big Blue.

Due to some overlap, HP's total share was almost 1.8 per cent lower than the combined share of HP and Compaq a year ago.

But Chris Franklin, enterprise server marketing manager at HP, said there had been little competition between the two prior to the merger.

"Both companies were experts in their own fields, with Compaq strong in the Wintel marketplace and HP with a larger share of the Unix market," he said.

He added that HP's move to use Itanium processors on its Unix servers would offer resellers additional sales. "There is an opportunity for resellers to migrate customers to Itanium-based platforms because the value proposition is compelling."

But Richard Ashmore, managing director at reseller Deverill, said it was too early to say whether the reseller would migrate its customers.

"We are keeping an eye on it but customers are saying 'why should we replace for the sake of it?' and are reluctant to spend. We have to show the business benefits."

Despite its demotion in the rankings, IBM actually increased its share for the quarter by one per cent compared to the same period last year.

Thomas Meyer, analyst at IDC, said server sales figures are only a guide to the total market as it includes services and software revenues as well as hardware shipments.

"IBM has a had a head start on services," he said. He added that it would be some time before it becomes clear how HP will be finally shaped. "We will not know until we see a clear product roadmap, its [final] sales organisation and how it involves the channel."

Total western european sales fell to $2.9bn for April to June of 2002 compared to £3.5bn for the same period last year.

Further reading

V3 Latest