ARMONK, NY, Feb. 26, 2004 -- IDC reported today that in 2003, IBM was the number one server vendor in the world for the year with 31.8 percent of the market share based on factory revenue. [1] IBM built upon a strong performance during the first three quarters of 2003 and continued to expand its lead over the competition during the fourth quarter, with 37.8 percent share.

IDC data shows that IBM gained world wide revenue share year-to-year in key server segments throughout 2003 and accelerated this growth during the fourth quarter of 2003, as compared to the same quarter in 2002.

In overall servers, IBM gained 2.0 points of worldwide revenue share year-to-year in the fourth quarter and 2.3 points for the year.

IDC reports that in UNIX(R) servers, IBM gained 4 points of worldwide share for the year overall with strong growth of 2.8 points in the fourth quarter year-to-year and revenue growth for the year of 12.0 percent.

In the sale of x86 servers, IBM gained 1.2 points of worldwide share for 2003 and during the fourth quarter added 0.4 points of share year-to-year while growing revenue 17 percent.

In one of the industry's fastest growing server segments, blade servers, IDC reports that IBM maintained its number one revenue share position with 43.4 percent of worldwide blade server revenue shipments for the fourth quarter. At the same time, IBM continues to lead in worldwide blade shipments with 38.3 percent of the market adding 22.7 points YTY.

In Linux servers, IBM grew its revenue share by 0.4 points of share overall in 2003 and by 0.5 points in the fourth quarter year-to-year, while HP and Dell both lost share in both the quarter and total year numbers. IBM grew fourth quarter revenue year to year by 67 percent in Linux servers with a total year revenue growth of 54 percent.

IBM, the e-business logo, eServer are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through The Open Group.

[1] Source: IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, February 2004