Gateway 2000 will introduce a line of servers early next year as part of its plans to increase sales of business systems, marking the company's bona fide entry into the server computer business.
Gateway just recently made its official entry into the business PC market with its "E" series of network-ready PCs. Gateway has been a long-standing giant in the consumer and small-office market.
Gateway plans to market servers for large corporations and will provide help installing them, according to Gateway President Rick Snyder, whose comments appeared in an article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's largest business daily. Company sources confirmed that Gateway intends to push into the server market.
The machines would be the first sold by Gateway specifically as servers, though customers have often used the company's tower systems to accomplish the same tasks.
The news follows Micron's acquisition of NetFrame, a high-end server company, in its own effort to enter the server market. Micron is a direct competitor to Gateway in the direct-sales arena.
Gateway would also be competing for direct sales with Dell, which has risen to No. 4 in the server market.
Offering a complete line of computers from notebooks to servers would make Gateway's products more attractive to some corporations by allowing them to buy all their computer systems from a single company.