IBM Corp with only a 7% share of the workstation market, translating to some $670m looked decidedly odd in International Data Corp’s worldwide market share figures for workstations in 1992, which we reported in CI No 2,152. The figures imply that up to 80% of Sun Microsystems Inc’s total revenue was derived from workstation sales alone in 1992 – when Sun claims to have sold some 10,000 server systems in the last year or so – while IBM Corp’s $668m share is only around a third of the business it claims to have done on the RS/6000 line over that period.
Discrepancy
The apparent discrepancy is down to the way IDC defines the workstation market. Its workstation figures do include sales of server systems, but only servers that are dedicated to workstation environments, plus tools and utilities software such as operating systems, compilers, software engineering tools and graphics libraries, certain peripherals – such as personal computer co-processor boards and laser printers – service, maintenance, custom consulting and systems integration fees. Specific requirements are that Unix or VMS is usually the primary operating system and that primary distribution is via direct or OEM sales to technical markets. Technical requirements include virtual memory, the inherent ability to connect to a distributed network and run two- and three-dimensional graphics applications, 3 MIPS to 40 MIPS of integer performance, 1,024 by 1,024 pixel resolution, 14, 16, 17 or 19 monitor, multitasking and a price range of between $3,900 and $100,000 plus. Systems that do not meet the IDC workstation criteria include the Compaq Computer Corp Deskpro, IBM’s PS/2 – whether running MS-DOS, OS/2 or AIX – and Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh II whether running MacOS or A/UX. Those are considered to be high-end personal computers and single-user systems. Additionally, workstations that meet the criteria, but run only one vendor’s software and are sold exclusively as turnkey systems for one or more applications – such as the Computervision Corp CADDstation – are not included. Workstations that have been bought in OEM by the likes of Mentor Graphics Corp, Valid Logic Inc, Control Data Systems Inc and Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG are also not included, nor are board-level components, multi-user systems that act as hosts to two or more terminals, such as the VAX-11/780 and IBM 9370 or parallel processing systems – or even the ICL Plc DRS 6000.
By William Fellows
Sun’s traditional association with the scientific and technical workstation community means that most of its installed servers and associated software and services – fall into IDC’s workstation bracket. The majority of IBM RS/6000 servers however, are installed in commercial environments, or are linked to systems that do not meet IDC’s technical criteria for workstations and are therefore not counted in workstation market figures, the Framingham, Massachusetts research outfit says. The same applies to related RS/6000 software and services. Furthermore, IDC’s definition of the workstation market includes both Unix and non-Unix environments and means Microsoft Corp Windows NT boxes which meet the criteria will be included in future surveys. DEC workstations running VMS or OpenVMS are therefore included in the latest figures. However, IDC says that DEC is the only vendor in its report that derives significant revenues from sales of non-Unix workstations. IDC says DEC’s own forecast of 2% or 3% compound annual growth in its workstation business is a tad conservative for a company that claims to have launched the world’s fastest workstations. It believes DEC is more than capable of meeting its goals at the top end of the market – in the same way that Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM capitalised on the performance of their respective HP 9000 Series 700 and RS/6000 lines when they were introduced. Even though OSF/1 is a strange strategy, IDC says that users at the top-end of the market are less interested in what operating system their boxes run than what the machine can do. DEC hasn’t yet said whi
ch Alpha systems will run the Windows NT operating system it has picked up, but the workstation range looks to be the most likely candidate. Meantime according to IDC Europa figures, DEC took a 15% – UKP52.5m – share of the UKP350m UK workstation market last year, although more than 50% of those workstations it shipped were configured with VMS or OpenVMS, and few if any Alpha-based models would have been included in this total.
IDC definition
That’s slightly up on 1991 when the firm sold a total of 5,225 workstations worth UKP47.9m – 3,855 of which were VAX/VMS workstations worth UKP33.1m, against just 1,470 Unix systems valued at UKP47.9m. Like DEC, IBM took a 15%, UKP52.5m share of the 1992 UK workstation market, Hewlett-Packard accounted for 11% UKP38.5m – Sun took the lion’s share with 41% or UKP143.5m, while other vendors accounted for 18% – UKP63m. The worldwide market for the IDC definition of a workstation grew by 9.9% to $9,540m in 1992, according to IDC. DEC’s share of this market declined 14.5% in revenue and 3.6% in volume terms over the previous year, to $1,059m. Sun, Hewlett and IBM all grew their shares over the same period. Sun workstations were valued by IDC at $3,625m – a 38% share, Hewlett-Packard had 17.4% – $1,660m, and IBM 7%, or $668m.
