Server market stuck in neutral; IBM still number one

The server market didn't change much in the second quarter, according to statistics from IDC. Sun passed Dell to become the number three provider in terms of revenue, but that was the extent of the excitement.

Worldwide revenue increased by 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago to $12.3 billion. It's the first time positive growth has occurred since the third quarter last year. Still, it is less than a percent.

Unit shipments grew 8.3 percent, the eighth quarter in a row of "slowing overall shipment growth," according to IDC.

Linux servers now represent 12 percent of all server revenue, but revenue only grew by 6.1 percent from the second quarter last year, the first time in fifteen quarters that double digit growth didn't occur. Revenue for Windows servers only grew by 3.1 percent.

IBM remained at the top of the heap with $3.8 billion in revenue. That's 31 percent of the whole market, but down slightly from the same quarter a year before. Hewlett-Packard was number two with $3.4 billion, also slightly down.

By contrast, Sun saw its revenues climb 15.5 percent to $1.6 billion. That was enough to capture 12.9 percent of the market by revenue and the number three spot. Dell saw revenue decline by 1.3 percent to rest at $1.3 billion.