The Asian economic crisis has had a severe effect on the server market, according to recent Dataquest figures. The research outfit reckons that global revenue for Q2 1998 was $9.9 billion, down 11.2 per cent on the previous year. Nmubers were down everywhere but Europe, with Japan (-31.6 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (-34 per cent) the worst performers in the major economic regions. Europe managed 7.7 per cent revenue growth, but 'rest of the world' (i.e., the bits that include Eastern Europe) plummeted 54.3 per cent. So the computer companies' sales operations in new and developing markets have been taking a bath. The fortunes of the individual suppliers varied dramatically. IBM stayed in the lead with revenues of $2.6 billion, but that was down 16.2 per cent on the previous year. HP gained 11.8 per cent to $1.4 billion, while Compaq-Digital lost lost 7.2 per cent to $1.3 billion, and Siemens with a near standstill held fifth place with $456 million. Especially notable is Sun's storming performance of 37 per cent growth, its $1.2 billion revenues taking it within a whisker of Compaq and HP, and the drop of 27.7 per cent in revenues for server companies outside the top five. Take into account a couple of other top tier vendors like Dell, who'll still be holding their ground well, and the picture is of weaker vendors being shaken out of the server market. ® Click for more stories