Hewlett-Packard overtook hardware rival IBM in terms of worldwide server sales volume in the second quarter of 2010, according to statistics from IT market analyst IDC.
HP derived $3.53 billion in revenue from sales of its server hardware, a 26% rise compared with the year-ago quarter. Comparatively, IBM sold $3.24 billion of products in its server line, a 3.2% decrease. Oracle, which became a hardware vendor following its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, saw server sales fall by 6% to $938 million.
IDC said the quarter saw the fastest sales growth since 2003, and that was fuelled by a wave of hardware refreshes previously delayed due to the difficult economic conditions.