Sun Microsystems Inc continues to lead the field in the technical workstation market, and has now displaced Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp in the mechanical computer-aided design world. According to market research firm Dataquest, San Jose, Sun now commands 36% of the mechanical design market in terms of volume, while Hewlett-Packard holds 23% and IBM, 8%. Sun supplies 60% of all workstations sold into the electronic design automation arena, compared with Hewlett’s 25%, and IBM’s 2%. Sun also boasts 62% of the computer-aided software engineering market. Here Hewlett has a 5% share compared with IBM’s 14%. Dataquest director Mike Seeley commented There has been an erroneous impression that Sun has changed its focus, resulting in a loss of momentum in its traditional technical market stronghold, pointing out that in fact the numbers prove that Sun continues to grow in technical markets as it builds a successful business in commercial markets.
