IBM's server market lead over HP grows

(Reuters) - U.S. computer group International Business Machines (IBM.N) widened its market share lead over rival Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) in worldwide server shipments in the second quarter, researcher IDC said on Wednesday.

IBM had a market share of 33.2 percent, up from 31.1 percent a year earlier, with Hewlett Packard coming in second with 27.4 percent, down from 28.3 percent. Dell (DELL.O) and Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O) followed with 12.5 percent and 11.2 percent of the market, respectively.

Overall global server shipments rose 11 percent in the second quarter, IDC said.

The market research firm forecast a slowdown in demand for servers in the second half of 2008, however.

"The pricing challenges many OEMs experienced ... is a concern as it may foreshadow a slowdown in market demand as enterprise budgets face further scrutiny in the second half of 2008," the firm said in a statement.

IDC said overall growth in servers was driven by strong demand for blade, Unix system and IBM System z servers.

(Reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty in Bangalore, editing by Will Waterman)