Gartner gives IBM first place in worldwide server revenue for the ninth consecutive quarter, with dramatic growth in Unix and blade server revenue. Apparently IBM increased its share in Unix revenue 5.5 points year-over-year to 33% of total revenues, while Sun lost share.

IBM also added more than seven points of share in the blade market, claiming more than 42% of the revenue in Q2, up 78%. IBM brought in 30% of worldwide server revenues, up 4.6%. IBM claims to be number one in overall Linux-based server revenue worldwide.

Meanwhile, armed with the IDC numbers, HP was saying that its server revenue outpaced worldwide market growth in Q2. It is first in total units shipped, first in x86 servers, both units and revenue, growing faster than the market year-over-year in revenue with double digit growth and first in – and this is a great SKU – combined Unix+Windows+Linux units and revenue.

(This report originally appeared in www.clientservernews.com)