IBM, which upgraded its midrange and enterprise SAN systems late last year, increased revenue by 13.6 percent and grew market share from 11.6 percent to 11.9 percent. Cox says IBM bounced back from an unusually poor fourth quarter, caused largely by a delay in shipments of its new DS6000 midrange and DS8000 enterprise systems (see IBM Denies Slipped Ship Date).
While Dell, NetApp, and IBM made strides, EMC, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) had mixed results. And Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) was the clear loser.
EMC increased revenue from $732.9 million to $814.7 million, but its share slipped from 23.2 percent to 23.0 percent. HP increased year-over-year revenue for the first time in more than a year and it remained in second place behind EMC, but its share still slipped from 16.6 percent to 15.9 percent. HP grew 17 percent in the low end and midrange, while the high-end XP series its sells through an OEM deal with Hitachi declined.
I was surprised that their [midrange] EVA system gained because they were in a middle of a transition, Cox says, referring to HPs recent upgrade of its midrange SAN platform (see HP Plans EVA Facelift and Users Eye Up HP's EVA).
Hitachis share dropped from 10.6 percent to 10.4 percent in the quarter. Cox says the first quarter is usually strong for Hitachi, but he says it needs to strengthen its presence in the fast-growing midrange sector. Hitachi, traditionally an enterprise play, is expected to launch a new midrange system based on its high-end TagmaStore platform this summer.
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