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Sun Micro Expands Program Aimed at HP Customers
 02/25/2004 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said on Wednesday it was expanding a program originally aimed at customers of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Alpha chip-based computers to include those that use HP's version of the Unix operating system. Sun also said that more than 80 customers have taken advantage of Sun's original HP Away program and moved to Sun's computers. Sun launched the initial HP Away program in July 2003, aiming at HP customers who use its AlphaTru64 computing platform, which HP will ultimately phase out. HP is phasing out its proprietary microprocessors in favor of so-called industry standard x86 chips made by Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices. It is also a close partner with Intel on the chipmaker's Itanium 64-bit chip, which HP co-developed. As expected, HP also announced on Tuesday that it would soon begin selling computer servers that use AMD's 64-bit Opteron processors, which for now compete mainly with Intel's pricier Xeon chips. Santa Clara, California-based Sun's move -- now going after its HP-UX customers -- is part of a tit-for-tat game the two Silicon Valley rivals have played in the last year. In October 2003, Palo Alto, California-based HP targeted Sun, which was struggling more at that time than it is now, offering Sun customers $25,000 in free services to switch to HP computers that run the Linux operating system. Sun, at the time, dismissed HP's move as a public relations stunt. An HP spokesman could not immediately reached for comment on the latest Sun move. In its most recent quarter, while Sun's revenue fell slightly year over year -- to $2.89 billion from $2.92 billion year over year -- sales grew almost 14 percent from the prior quarter, the largest such increase since 1998. "We're going to go for it, as I'm sure IBM will as well," said Larry Singer, Sun's head of global market strategies. "We'll do a workshop for you on what it'll take to migrate (to Sun)," Singer said. "You don't pay for anything until we've migrated you and you have the benchmarks agreed upon." Singer said it made sense to expand the offer to include HP's HP-UX customers, because that operating system now runs only on Itanium processors, and that market has been slower to develop than Intel had hoped. Sun has so far recognized between $50 million and $100 million in revenue from the original HP Away program, Singer said, adding that the final tally will rise to about $200 million once it recognizes all the revenue under the applicable accounting rules. News Archive | |
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