April 4, 2009 at 15:46Will IBM be a monopolist in the UNIX server market?
In connection with the fact that “IBM will buy Sun for $ 7 billion,” there were statements:
“It is possible that the deal between Sun Microsystems and IBM may be prevented by antitrust regulators, as these companies dominate the Unix server segment, accounting for 65% of this market. ”
But, I wouldn’t directly distinguish the modern Unix server market with the proprietary RISC processor architecture (such as IBM Power, Sun Sparc and HP / Intel Itanium) into a separate and closed market.
In the RISC / UNIX systems market, there are really only 3 large companies, IBM, Sun and HP, and after combining IBM & Sun, there will be only two competitors: IBM / Power - HP / Itanium (perhaps the third will be Fujitsu / Sparc, although I I personally think that Fujitsu will most likely be forced to close its Sparc division).
But notice, the history, along with its RISC architectures, has left such legendary companies as:
1. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) - CPU Alpha AXP ,
2. Silicon Graphics (SGI) - CPU MIPS ,
3. Intergraph Computer - CPU Clipper ,
4. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI) - CPU MIPS ,
5. Pyramid Technology - CPU MIPS ,
6. Tandem Computers - CPU MIPS ,
7. Data General (DG) - CPU Motorola 88k , and a bunch of others.
And you did not ask the question to whom did they lose (give) their market shares?
And if you carefully analyze the situation, it turns out that their market shares were occupied by servers and workstations on the standard IBM PC architecture, with standard (xp) Intel x86 processors, which today compete on equal terms with RISC architecture processors!
And cheap Intel x86 / Linux servers are released by a huge cloud of all kinds of companies (mostly Chinese):
1. Hewlett-Packard (HP) [swallowed Compaq & DEC & Tandem & Convex & Apollo],
2. Dell Inc. ,
3. IBM [might absorb Sun Microsystems, Computer swallowed Sequent],
4. Fujitsu [absorbed Pyramid & SNI],
5. Acer [absorbed Gateway & ALR],
6.Lenovo Group [absorbed by the IBM PC Co.],
7. Rackable Systems [absorbed by SGI & Intergraph Computer], and others.
Therefore, IBM Power / UNIX has a huge number of competitors, including HP Itanium / UNIX.
And the main one is not HP at all, but the ubiquitous Dell, which at one time had much to gain from the HP & Compaq / DEC merger and again, Dell is likely to benefit from the IBM & Sun merger by offering to transfer Sun customers to their cheap x86 / Linux server!
Useful articles for thought:
1. “Michael Dell for the merger of IBM and Sun” ,
2. “Server market: x86 rules the score” ,
3. “HP leads the Russian x86 server market” ,
4."Acer's share of the personal computer market in 2008 increased to 11% . "
“It is possible that the deal between Sun Microsystems and IBM may be prevented by antitrust regulators, as these companies dominate the Unix server segment, accounting for 65% of this market. ”
But, I wouldn’t directly distinguish the modern Unix server market with the proprietary RISC processor architecture (such as IBM Power, Sun Sparc and HP / Intel Itanium) into a separate and closed market.
In the RISC / UNIX systems market, there are really only 3 large companies, IBM, Sun and HP, and after combining IBM & Sun, there will be only two competitors: IBM / Power - HP / Itanium (perhaps the third will be Fujitsu / Sparc, although I I personally think that Fujitsu will most likely be forced to close its Sparc division).
But notice, the history, along with its RISC architectures, has left such legendary companies as:
1. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) - CPU Alpha AXP ,
2. Silicon Graphics (SGI) - CPU MIPS ,
3. Intergraph Computer - CPU Clipper ,
4. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI) - CPU MIPS ,
5. Pyramid Technology - CPU MIPS ,
6. Tandem Computers - CPU MIPS ,
7. Data General (DG) - CPU Motorola 88k , and a bunch of others.
And you did not ask the question to whom did they lose (give) their market shares?
And if you carefully analyze the situation, it turns out that their market shares were occupied by servers and workstations on the standard IBM PC architecture, with standard (xp) Intel x86 processors, which today compete on equal terms with RISC architecture processors!
And cheap Intel x86 / Linux servers are released by a huge cloud of all kinds of companies (mostly Chinese):
1. Hewlett-Packard (HP) [swallowed Compaq & DEC & Tandem & Convex & Apollo],
2. Dell Inc. ,
3. IBM [might absorb Sun Microsystems, Computer swallowed Sequent],
4. Fujitsu [absorbed Pyramid & SNI],
5. Acer [absorbed Gateway & ALR],
6.Lenovo Group [absorbed by the IBM PC Co.],
7. Rackable Systems [absorbed by SGI & Intergraph Computer], and others.
Therefore, IBM Power / UNIX has a huge number of competitors, including HP Itanium / UNIX.
And the main one is not HP at all, but the ubiquitous Dell, which at one time had much to gain from the HP & Compaq / DEC merger and again, Dell is likely to benefit from the IBM & Sun merger by offering to transfer Sun customers to their cheap x86 / Linux server!
Useful articles for thought:
1. “Michael Dell for the merger of IBM and Sun” ,
2. “Server market: x86 rules the score” ,
3. “HP leads the Russian x86 server market” ,
4."Acer's share of the personal computer market in 2008 increased to 11% . "