Successful at selling hardware, HP wants to make a bigger splash in the software arena, but with longtime rival IBM intending to do the same, the company faces a difficult battle.rnHP and IBM directly compete in several technology markets, with each having strong points. For instance, HP in 2006 became the largest computer company in terms of revenue, with sales increasing 6% to $91.7 billion, compared with IBM's year-end total of $91.4 billion. Yet for the first quarter in 2007 IBM came out ahead of HP in x86 server sales, according to Gartner, with about 1.6% more market share than HP But HP topped the market for blade server sales, and the two vendors tied for second place behind EMC in the computing storage business, according to IDC.
展开▼
