Recent shipment figures for high-end UNIX servers gave IBM something to celebrate at year-end: According to researcher IDC, during the last eight quarters, IBM has shipped more high-end eServer p690 systems than Hewlett-Packard's high-end Superdome UNIX systems or Sun's high-end UNIX systems. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM has shipped 3,498 units while HP shipped 3,136 and Sun 2,249 (SunFire 15K and 12K combined).
As of 3Q'03, IDC reported HP, located in Palo Alto, Calif., was still the UNIX market share leader, with 35.7 percent of the market, followed by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun, with 28.6 percent of the market. IBM's overall UNIX market share was 25.6 percent. While both HP and Sun's share was down slightly during the past two years, 1.9 percent and .2 percent, respectively, IBM's numbers were up 4.5 percent.
IBM also recently announced that ShopNBC, a home shopping network, has selected IBM to help it respond to seasonal sales demand in its core businesses. As part of the multi-year agreement with ShopNBC's, the IBM eServer p690 systems will act as the foundation for the company's datacenter, which manages its mission-critical e-commerce and in-store retail applications.
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