High-End Servers

This segment has always seen a sea-saw battle between HP and IBM, and this

year is no different. All four brands that are in the Users' Choice club are the

same as last year, and in the same order as last year. IBM remains the most

future ready brand, well ahead of others. It's followed by HP, with a score of

65. Dell and Sun are far behind in the race, with relative future readiness

indices of 21% and 9% respectively.

On the brand persuasion front, HP is the most persuasive brand, with IBM

close on its heels. In absolute terms however, none of the brands are persuasive

enough, which is the same situation as last year. What this means is that the

top of mind recall for most of these brands is very good, but the numbers that

are likely to purchase any of the brands is much lower. Dell's brand persuasion

index is the least persuasive of the lot.

The brand pull situation on the other hand is better than last year, with all

brands gaining pull, i.e. there are more users that are likely to switch into

the brands than switch out. Last year, it was only HP that was gaining pull. On

the relative brand pull scale, Dell is gaining the maximum pull, followed by HP,

IBM, and then Sun.

HP enjoys the highest brand loyalty at 64%, followed by IBM at 61%, Dell at

59%, and finally Sun at 50%. HP also has the maximum users likely to switch to

competing brands. Of Sun's existing users, 40% were not really sure which brand

to switch to.