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By Ronald Fink
Storage software sales fell in the first quarter of the year for the first time in five years, led by declines at the largest vendors, according to a report released today by IDC.
Sales for the sector as a whole were down 5%, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker. Industry leader EMC's storage software revenue fell 14%, from $716 million to $612 million, while sales at the No. 6 vendor, Hewlett-Packard, plummeted 21.5%, from $123 million to $97 million.
The declines at the two companies slashed their market shares, with EMC's share falling from 24.2% to 21.8% and H-P’s declining from 4.2% to 3.5%.
Others large vendors experienced smaller declines in sales and little or no change in market share. The No. 3 player, IBM, saw its sales fall 7%, from $368 million to $342 million, and its market share dip slightly, from 12.4% to 12.2%. No. 4 vendor NetApp’s revenue fell 4.7%, from $245 million to $233 million, while its share was unchanged at 8.3%. Sales of CA, the fifth largest vendor, fell 5%, from $126 million to $120 million, but its market share remained 4.3%.
The only vendor among the six whose performance improved was Symantec. The No. 2 vendor’s sales climbed 2.5%, from $518 million to $531 million, boosting its share from 17.5% to 18.9%.
In a press release accompanying the results, IDC analyst Michael Margossian noted that the storage software sector normally sees weak sales during the first quarter but this year also felt the impact of the recession.
IDC director of storage software research Laura DuBois reported that most segments of the market suffered, with device management, replication and infrastructure showing the biggest declines.
In contrast, DuBois noted that sales of file system and management software advanced. But she said results for the largest vendors would have to improve for the sector as a whole to bounce back.
"The overall storage software market was pulled down by the underperforming large companies that make up a bulk of the sub-markets," DuBois observed. "Once they start to recover, they will bring the entire market up with them."
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