Sun still a hot shot despite dull market

Latest figures on the state of the US workstation market reveal that a period of serious rationalisation is just around the corner. Only one of the top five vendors gained market share in 1995, with a number of smaller vendors also gaining ground.

Market research company Dataquest has found that while there were no surprises in the US market in 1995, those vendors shipping fewer than 10,000 units per quarter may find long-term survival becoming increasingly difficult, despite an increase in the total number of shipments over the period.

The situation is set to worsen as Windows NT increases the pressure on the Unix market.

Sun Microsystems has maintained its position as the number one vendor in the workstation market and is still comfortably ahead of Hewlett Packard, despite its share falling from 38 per cent for 1994 to 35 per cent for 1995. Hewlett Packard's market share slipped from 20.9 per cent in 1994 to 19.8 per cent in 1995.

While Sun's workstation revenue slipped in line with its declining market share, falling by about one percentage point to 30.4 per cent for 1995, HP's revenue share increased to 24.9 per cent for 1995.

IBM is 1995's third-placed workstation vendor with a market share of 9.7 per cent, down from 10 per cent in 1994. Fourth-placed Silicon Graphics was the only top five workstation vendor to increase its market share in 1995 to 8.5 per cent, compared with 1994's 6.3 per cent. Digital came in at fifth place with 7.9 per cent of the 1995 market, compared with nine per cent in 1994.