Study: HP storage draws corporate buyers

Corporate buyers are giving more consideration to storage and services from Hewlett-Packard, according to a survey of hundreds of information technology buyers. The study, commissioned by Merrill Lynch and released Friday, showed mixed results for IBM. More companies are considering IBM's mainframes, desktop PCs and Shark storage, but fewer are looking at Big Blue's low-end servers, notebooks and services. Interest in EMC's Symmetrix began to rise ahead of its recent DMX product announcement.

Overall, companies are showing less interest in buying PCs and no signs of upgrading soon, according to the survey, which was conducted between Dec. 18 and Jan. 10.