Duff drives hit Big Blue

IBM admitted its PC server shipments were badly hit by faulty disk drives after IDC figures showed HP had leapfrogged the firm into number two slot for worldwide sales.

Big Blue's US general manager for PCs, Samuel Palmisano, said the fall in market share was a direct result of problems with defective disc drives, supplied by an unnamed third party.

Palmisano said the drives had to be removed from finished servers, causing a three-month shortfall in Big Blue server products and leading to a loss of market share. 'I made a decision which I think is in the long-term interest of IBM and its customers and, in the short term, we took a hit.'

He refused to name the disc drive vendor, saying the faulty product could have caused major problems for users. 'We felt that these files could run into data corruption.'

Compaq maintained its position as the leading PC server vendor for the third quarter, with a worldwide market share of 31 per cent, followed by HP, which took the second spot with a 12 per cent share.