HP Korea, for the first time in five years, has reclaimed the number one position in the local Unix server market in the final quarter of last year. IBM Korea has lost its iron-fisted grip on the local market since its sales were cut in half.
According to industry sources on March 9, the local Unix server market was estimated at 70 billion won (US$62 million) in Q4 2014, a year-on-year decline of 25 percent. HP Korea nabbed the top spot in the market with a 40 percent share. The top-ranked company turned over 27 billion won (US$24 million) from its Unix server business during the citied period, down 1 percent from the previous year. Its performance is widely acknowledged to be better than the negative growth of 25 percent in the market.
In contrast, IBM Korea saw its sales nearly cut in half to 25 billion won (US$22 million) during the period, after recording 46.1 billion won (US$41.1 million) of sales in Q4 2013. The firm used to post around 70 billion won (US$62 million) in sales per quarter, but lost its top spot and became a paper tiger.
Oracle Korea also witnessed its sales drop 30 percent year-on-year to reach 14 billion won (US$12 million) in Q4 2014.
Unix servers are losing ground in the global server market, owing to the emergence of cheaper and better performing x86 servers. However, Unix servers still have a profound effect on the local server market, which comprises a large proportion of the total. As a result, competition between HP, IBM, and Oracle to dominate the local market is intensifying.