IBM continued to dominate a slow-growing worldwide server market during the fourth quarter, according to latest figures from Gartner.

Server vendors moved a total of 1.87m units during the period - 6 per cent more boxes than they shipped in the same quarter one year ago. All told, customers shelled out $14.2bn in the fourth quarter compared to $13.5bn one year earlier. For the full year, the vendors shipped $49.5bn worth of servers on 6.7m units. This compares $46.1bn in revenue on 5.6m units in 2003.

IBM showed the best mix of high-end and volume systems, as it held the revenue lead but ended only third in total shipments. IBM shipped $5.1bn in servers during the fourth quarter and was followed by HP with $3.9bn in sales, Sun with $1.4bn, Dell with $1.3bn and Fujitsu with $654m in sales.

Dell enjoyed the strongest growth at 18 per cent. HP also had a strong quarter, growing 9 per cent. IBM grew 6 per cent, and Sun saw revenue shrink 5 per cent.

HP outpaced all vendors in total shipments, moving 1.9m systems. Dell followed with 1.4m shipments, IBM moved 1m, Sun shipped 337,000 and Fujitsu shipped 229,000, Gartner said. ®

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