Windows, IBM Top Server Rankings
Windows has narrowly edged out Unix as the top server operating system in terms of revenue, and IBM has surged to the top spot in the Unix market for the first time in nearly a decade. The findings were part of research firm IDC's quarterly and year-end Server Tracker report issued Wednesday.
The firm found that Windows sales accounted for $17.7 billion in 2005 compared to $17.5 billion for Unix. Windows Server sales were up 4.7 percent year-over-year, compared with a 5.9 percent decline in Unix sales.
According to IDC, it is the first time Unix was not number one since before the firm started producing the quarterly report ten years ago. Overall server revenue grew 4.4 percent to $51.3 billion in 2005, up from $49.1 billion.
Linux servers also came on strong, posting a 20.8 percent increase year-over-year on sales of $5.7 billion, putting the operating system in third place for the first time.
Even with the surge in Windows server sales, the research firm says to not expect one platform to take a commanding lead anytime soon.
"Although the trend is towards volume systems, we do not believe that any one platform will be in a position to force another platform out of the marketplace for many years to come," IDC server research vice president Jean Bozman said.
IBM was able to take some positives out of Wednesday's report. The company has been a perennial leader in the overall server market category -- it has led it for four years. But it has so far been unsuccessful in climbing to the top of the Unix market.
Sun Microsystems and HP have led Unix server sales for nearly seven years. However, missteps by Sun and a failed launch of Itanium by HP allowed IBM to move past both companies to take the top spot for the first time in nearly a decade.
For the year, IBM had a 31.8 percent market share, compared to 29.8 percent for HP and 26.2 percent for Sun.
"Sun's decline -- down 10% in 2005 -- has accelerated over the last four years, through a series of strategic misfires and fueled by the relentless investment," an IBM spokesperson told BetaNews. "This is all while superior products and maniacal sales execution from IBM have launched them into the much heralded top spot."
While HP and IBM both made public statements following the release of the report -- with HP pointing to its win in overall server shipment share -- Sun was noticeably silent.
The company does have a commanding lead in overall unit shipments, with some 59 percent last year alone. However, by cutting its prices, Sun has lost quite a bit of revenue, as figures were down more than 10 percent for the year.
Analysts at IDC cautioned over reading too much into Sun's decline, saying its new Galaxy servers could provide a base for the company to rebuild upon.