IDC – Linux growth is 50% year over year

The worldwide server systems market continues to gain ground, showing 2% revenue
growth in the third quarter of 2003 (3Q03), according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. This gain was nearly one percentage point higher
than expected. Worldwide server factory revenue topped out at $10.8 billion. It was the second consecutive quarter of positive growth for server
revenues worldwide, following nine quarters of decline during the economic downturn.

Overall, server unit shipments grew dramatically by 19.5%, reflecting the underlying demand for volume servers, which are small servers priced less
than $25,000. This demand led to volume server revenue growth of 9.5% year-over-year. Sales of more expensive server systems in the midrange
enterprise. Sales of more expensive server systems in the midrange enterprise ($25,000 to $499,999) grew revenues by 7% year-over-year, and high-end
enterprise servers (priced $500,000 or more) declined in revenue by 14% year-over-year. IDC believes this is due in part to IT budget constraints and
to shifts in server deployments that favor volume servers.