IBM overtakes HP server in sales

IBM overtook Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the third quarter as the world's biggest seller of server computers, according to Gartner, SF Gate reports.

Computerworld states that IBM's revenue share of the worldwide server market reached $3.85 billion, a 3.5% increase from a year ago. That gave it 29.7% of the worldwide market, nudging it ahead of HP for the top spot.

HP's server revenue, just over $3.8 billion, declined 3.6% from a year ago, leaving it with 29.3% of the world's market, according to Gartner. Third-placed Dell, meanwhile, grew 6.3% in server revenue during the period to more than $1.9 billion; it now has 14.7% share of the worldwide market.

"The third quarter of 2011 produced growth on a global level, but there was some significant variation in growth by region," The Register quotes Jeffrey Hewitt, a research VP at Gartner, as saying.

"All regions showed growth in both shipments and vendor revenue, except for Western Europe, which posted a 4.9% decline in revenue for the period," he said. "Asia-Pacific grew the most significantly in shipments, with a 23.9% increase. Eastern Europe posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 27.4% for the period."