Market research firm Gartner issued figures for server systems that show HP has sold more systems in terms of revenue than the previously unassailable IBM.

According to Gartner, HP sold $4 billion worth of server revenues during the first calendar quarter of this year, with its Proliant range accounting for the growth spurt. Big Blue only managed to ship servers with revenues amounting to $3.9 billion, but still has near to 29 per cent of the server market, with HP only marginally ahead by 0.7%.

HP had better not rest on its laurels, however. Dell showed a healthy growth rate of 15% on server sales during the quarter.

Gartner said worldwide revenues for servers amounted to $13.6 billion during the period, with 2.3 million units shipping. Itanium, RISC and Unix servers fell in terms of revenue growth. Sun's share of the market fell by 1%.

The market research firm does not break out servers by microprocessor type. X