Sales in the Asia-Pacific server market hit US$1.21 billion during the second quarter -- up eight percent on last year -- indicating that this market may be entering a growth phase, according to market researcher Dataquest.
IBM took the number one server market position in the region, capturing a 35.8 percent share in Q2. HP was second with 31.2 percent and Sun Microsystems third with 16.4 percent, Dataquest said.
Gartner vice-president for hardware and systems research, Matthew Boon, said despite war, SARS and general uncertainty in the market, the 'regional powerhouses' had finally got back on the job of enhancing infrastructure.
'These growth rates are an encouraging sign that the Asia-Pacific server market is entering a growth phase,' he said in a statement.
China continued to be the number one country for server revenue in the region, generating US$382.35 million in sales in Q2. Australia was placed third with US$207.13 million in sales for the quarter, up from US$178.19 in the same quarter last year, a 16.2 percent growth rate.
In Australia, many organisations hit critical hardware replacement cycles with government and SMB sectors driving growth, Gartner said.
While IBM and HP increased their market share in the quarter, Sun Microsystems continued to lose market share, suffering a revenue decline of five percent over last year. 'In a fiercely competitive market, Sun managed to increase shipments significantly. However, this growth at the low end is not enough to hold up revenue at the high end.
'Sun really needs to get focused at the big end of the market and increase sales of its profit-rich high-end systems while also more clearly articulating just what its long term strategies are,' Boon said.
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