Sales of computer servers in 12 key countries in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, were up 26% year-over-year during the quarter ended March 31, 1999, according to a preliminary study released over the weekend by International Data Corp (IDC).
About 75,370 servers worth $997.6m were sold in the first quarter, compared to 57,120 units worth $789.6m in the same period last year, the report said. For the first time in recent years, all the countries in the region showed revenue growth, with both government and corporate spending up. The highest growth rate was seen in countries which had been hardest hit by recession, such as Thailand and Indonesia.
IDC’s Hong Kong-based server research manager for the Asia-Pacific, Avneesh Saxena, said sales of low-end servers, costing less than $100,000, and of mid-range servers in the $100,000 to $1m bracket were particularly strong. Roughly 61% of all servers sold in the region were Windows NT-based and 32% were Unix-based, he said.
He also expressed confidence about medium-term growth in the region. Asia’s economic recovery and strong demand in the four largest server markets; South Korea, China, Australia and Taiwan, will support server growth throughout this year and next. We believe the overall Asia-Pacific market will grow by 14% to cross $3.9bn this year, from $3.4bn for the whole of 1998, he said. The four markets together accounted for 72.4% of total Asia-Pacific server demand in the quarter.
The top five vendors in the period were IBM Corp, with a 26.5% market share, Hewlett-Packard Co at 21.7%, Compaq Computer Corp with 17.1%, Sun Microsystems Inc at 12.2% and Unisys Corp with 2.5%.
