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Japan's server market surging

Major Japanese server vendors expect shipments to take off.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Strong demand from corporations is driving demand for server computers, according to a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan?s largest business daily.

Financial deregulation and other sea changes in the Japanese economy are increasing corporate demand for servers that manage information networks, according to the report.

NEC, IBM Japan and other major server manufacturers expect server shipments to double in the current fiscal year, the newspaper said.

NEC is forecasting that server shipments will jump 100 percent year-to-year in the April-September period. Compaq?s Japan arm, the second-largest supplier, and IBM Japan expect the same level of growth, while Fujitsu sees 80 percent growth, the report said.

Nihon Sun Microsystems, the largest supplier of Unix servers, sees shipments doubling. Hewlett-Packard?s Japan arm, the second-largest maker of Unix servers, sees shipments rising about 50 percent.

IBM Japan also expects a 20-30 percent increase in shipments of its AS/400 series of computers.