As expected (CI No 3,454), Sun Microsystems Inc is trumpeting the latest International Data Corp numbers which give it pole position in the Unix server market in terms of units shipped last year, where it leapfrogged IBM Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co. It still trails IBM and HP in pure dollar amounts in the total server market – it’s in third place with 18.6% – but is still ahead of Windows NT. Sun’s unit shipments grew 75% year-over-year compared with IBM at 27%, HP’s 40% and Compaq’s 45%. Of course Sun launched its low-end WinTel killer the low-end Enterprise 450 workgroup server during 1997. Sun also tops IDC’s list of leading mid-range ($100,000 to $1m) and (sub-$100,000) entry systems shipped. In systems above $1m, Sun is ranked third in unit terms. Sun ranked third in high-end unit shipments, outpacing ensconced high-end systems vendors Silicon Graphics Inc(fourth place), and IBM (fifth place), according to IDC.
