IDC’s Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker produced a number of statistical dead heats for the fourth quarter of 2002, allowing more than one company to claim that they were top dog. So claim they did.
HP and IBM tied statistically for the number one position, with 25% revenue share each. So each put out a press release claiming that they were the market leaders.
“IBM Climbs to Top in Disk Storage Systems,” trumpeted an IBM press release. “HP Leads Market in Worldwide Disk Storage Systems,” said an HP release. Both went on to say in their releases that they had tied for the top spot.
The good news is that the market remains large enough for everyone.
Worldwide disk storage systems factory revenue was $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up 12% sequentially from the third quarter, according to IDC. With the strong sequential growth, revenue for the entire year was better than expected, declining only 15% from 2001 instead of the forecasted decline of 21%.
“The fourth quarter’s results were similar to what we have seen in the server market,” said John McArthur, group vice president of Storage Research at IDC. “We expect to see a return to more normal seasonal changes as companies have already made their major adjustments to storage spending.”
Competition continued to be fierce during the quarter. In addition to the HP and IBM tie at the top, there was a three-way statistical tie for the number four position between Sun Microsystems, Dell and Hitachi. IBM was the fastest-growing of the top six in the fourth quarter, with 34% sequential growth from the third quarter. EMC, which slipped from second place in 2001 to third place last year, grew 22% sequentially, while Sun had a 17% sequential growth rate.
In the total external storage system market, revenue increased 12% sequentially in the fourth quarter. HP maintained its number one position with 21% revenue market share. IBM and EMC tied for second, with 17% revenue share each. There was a similar scenario in the total external RAID market, where HP and EMC tied for the number one position, each with 19% of the revenue share. So EMC, of course, put out a release claiming the top spot in that market.
“In 2003, [storage] vendors will continue to bring to market more compelling business and product strategies, including the introduction of new components and storage network technologies,” said Charlotte Rancourt, research director in IDC’s Disk Storage Systems program. “As a consequence, we expect to see further fluctuation in vendor market share in 2003.”
The Open SAN market outperformed the overall market, with 14% sequential growth from the third quarter. The NAS market didn’t fare as well, but managed to post a still-healthy 4% sequential growth rate. In the Open SAN market, HP led with 28% revenue share, followed by EMC with 26% share. In the NAS market, Network Appliance maintained its number one position with 36% share, followed by EMC with 33%. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market (NAS combined with Open SAN) with 28% revenue share.
For the full year, HP (reported as the combined entity of Compaq and HP from the second quarter going forward) edged out IBM for the number one position with 21% revenue share for the total disk storage systems market. IBM and Dell posted the largest year-over-year growth among the top 5 vendors, with 15% and 13% growth, respectively.
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, Fourth Quarter 2002
(Revenues are in Millions)
| Vendor | Q4 2002 Revenue |
Market Share |
Q3 2002 Revenue |
Market Share |
Revenue Growth Q3/Q4 |
| HP | $1,372 | 25% | $1,293 | 27% | 6% |
| IBM | $1,340 | 25% | $1,000 | 21% | 34% |
| EMC | $614 | 11% | $505 | 10% | 22% |
| Sun Microsystems | $297 | 6% | $255 | 5% | 17% |
| Dell | $287 | 5% | $278 | 6% | 3% |
| Hitachi | $258 | 5% | $277 | 6% | -7% |
| Others | $1,233 | 23% | $1,206 | 25% | 2% |
| All Vendors | $5,402 | 100% | $4,814 | 100% | 12% |
NOTE: Data for Hewlett-Packard includes revenue for both Hewlett-Packard and Compaq.
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Factory Revenue, Full Year 2002
(Revenues are in Millions)
| Vendor | 2002 Revenue |
Market Share |
2001 Revenue |
Market Share |
Revenue Growth 2002/2001 |
| HP | $4,283 | 21% | $1,790 | 8% | 139% |
| IBM | $3,994 | 20% | $3,473 | 15% | 15% |
| EMC | $2,382 | 12% | $3,803 | 16% | -37% |
| Sun Microsystems | $1,276 | 6% | $1,365 | 6% | -7% |
| Dell | $1,086 | 5% | $959 | 4% | 13% |
| Hitachi | $1,069 | 5% | $1,559 | 7% | -31% |
| Compaq | $997 | 5% | $4,381 | 19% | -77% |
| Others | $4,867 | 24% | $6,168 | 26% | -21% |
| All Vendors | $19,954 | 100% | $23,499 | 100% | -15% |
NOTE: Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are combined Q2 2002 to Q4 2002. Compaq is separate in Q1 2002.
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