Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Market Grew 9 Percent in First Quarter 2006

Gartner: Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled $3.8 billion in first quarter 2006, an 8.6 percent increase over the same period last year. IBM took over the No. 2 position in the first quarter 2006, and Hewlett-Packard slipped into third place (see Table 1). IBM's worldwide ECB market share increased to 12.7 percent, while HP's market share totaled 12.4 percent. EMC maintained the No. 1 spot, finishing the quarter with 24.1 percent market share. Hitachi/HDS maintained its No. 4 ranking with a 9.2 percent share of the market, despite a slight decline over the same period last year. Dell maintained its lead over NetApp with 7.5 and 7 percent market shares, respectively. Sun Microsystems remained in the No. 7 spot with 6 percent market share. Although Sun experienced the strongest growth year-over-year among the top-tier vendors, with 29.8 percent revenue growth, Sun's growth was primarily a result of its recent acquisition of StorageTek in the third quarter of last year. While NetApp and Dell showed organic revenue growth of 25.1 and 22.3 percent, these figures represent a slowdown in revenue growth for both vendors from the same period last year. Table 1

Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor Revenue Estimates for 1Q06 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
Company	1Q06 Revenue	1Q06 Market Share (%)	1Q05 Revenue	1Q05 Market Share (%)	1Q05-1Q06 Revenue Change (%)
EMC *	915.4	24.1	814.0	23.3	12.5
IBM	482.7	12.7	430.7	12.3	12.1
Hewlett-Packard **	469.7	12.4	505.5	14.4	-7.1
Hitachi/HDS ***	349.0	9.2	372.0	10.6	-6.2
Dell	283.4	7.5	231.6	6.6	22.3
NetApp	264.9	7.0	211.7	6.1	25.1
Sun Microsystems	227.9	6.0	175.6	5.0	29.8
Others	806.5	21.2	758.0	21.7	6.4
TOTAL	3,799.6	100.0	3,499.1	100.0	8.6

Note*EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Siemens. Note ** HP's 2005 market statistics reflect new, updated XP series revenue and EVA series revenue and unit guidance. Note *** Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP and Sun Microsystems. Source: Gartner Dataquest (June 2006) Sales in IBM's DS4000 and DS8000 Series year-over-year contributed to its increase in market share. Although buoyed by its recent StorageTek acquisition, Sun Microsystems experienced organic growth via its midrange and data center storage systems.Gartner external controller-based disk storage reports reflect hardware only revenue, as well as hardware revenue associated with financial leases and managed services. Optional storage software revenue and Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure components are excluded.

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